The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) will launch the Sobriety Week campaign aimed at highlighting the adverse effects of alcohol abuse, at the Premier Hotel in Pretoria on Monday, 5 September 2011 at 10h00. Members of the media are invited to attend.
The launch will outline the programme of activities the dti will embark on from Monday as part of the first of its kind Sobriety Week. The week ends with the observation International Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) Awareness Day which is observed globally on 9 September every year.
Department of Trade and Industry intends to make Sobriety Week an annual event that will be used among others, to highlight the effects of alcohol abuse on the different aspects of human life, encourage compliance by registrants and licence holders to liquor legislation, encourage responsible trading and enhance community activism towards reporting illegal trading and violation of mandatory conditions.
The commemoration of International FAS Day seeks to highlight the dangers of drinking during pregnancy and the plight of individuals and families who struggle with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. The first FAS Day was celebrated on 9 September 1999. This day was chosen so that on the ninth day of the ninth month of the year, the world will remember that during the nine months of pregnancy a woman should abstain from alcohol.
For more information contact:
Charles Mnisi
Tel: 012 394 1721
Cell: 072 523 4886
E-mail: Cmnisi@thedti.gov.za
Enquiries:
Sidwell Medupe
Tel: 012 394 1650
Cell: 079 492 1774
E-mail: MSMedupe@thedti.gov.za
