Cancer society expands anti-smoking campaign to Tobago schools

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety (TTCS), in part­ner­ship with the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion, has ex­pand­ed its an­ti-smok­ing and an­ti-va­p­ing ed­u­ca­tion cam­paign to sec­ondary schools in To­ba­go.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued in March 2026, the TTCS said the ini­tia­tive builds on sim­i­lar pro­grammes car­ried out across Trinidad and con­tin­ues the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s ef­forts to pro­mote youth health ed­u­ca­tion through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The pro­gramme brings in­ter­ac­tive lec­tures, pre­sen­ta­tions and dis­cus­sions di­rect­ly to high school stu­dents, giv­ing them in­for­ma­tion to make in­formed de­ci­sions about their health. The ses­sions ad­dress the dan­gers as­so­ci­at­ed with smok­ing and va­p­ing and en­cour­age open dis­cus­sion among stu­dents, teach­ers and school com­mu­ni­ties.

The TTCS said its part­ner­ship with the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed the cam­paign for sev­er­al years and has helped the or­gan­i­sa­tion reach thou­sands of stu­dents na­tion­wide with ev­i­dence-based in­for­ma­tion on the harm­ful ef­fects of to­bac­co and emerg­ing va­p­ing prod­ucts.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­lease, the youth ed­u­ca­tion ini­tia­tive com­bines school-based lec­tures and dis­cus­sions with a so­cial me­dia cam­paign de­signed to com­mu­ni­cate the risks as­so­ci­at­ed with smok­ing and va­p­ing. Or­gan­is­ers said the cam­paign con­tin­ues to en­cour­age con­ver­sa­tions among stu­dents, ed­u­ca­tors and par­ents.

The TTCS al­so re­port­ed in­creas­ing in­ter­est from schools re­quest­ing the ses­sions, which the or­gan­i­sa­tion de­scribed as a sign that the cam­paign’s mes­sage is gain­ing trac­tion and that de­mand for cred­i­ble health ed­u­ca­tion is grow­ing.

Stu­dents who par­tic­i­pate in the ses­sions have re­spond­ed pos­i­tive­ly, with many tak­ing part in dis­cus­sions and ask­ing ques­tions about the long-term health con­se­quences of smok­ing and va­p­ing.

The cam­paign al­so us­es dig­i­tal plat­forms to broad­en its reach, us­ing on­line con­tent to en­gage young au­di­ences and re­in­force an­ti-smok­ing and an­ti-va­p­ing mes­sages while en­cour­ag­ing in­formed de­ci­sion-mak­ing and youth ad­vo­ca­cy.

The TTCS said the con­tin­ued sup­port of the Sco­tia­bank Foun­da­tion demon­strates cor­po­rate lead­er­ship in pro­mot­ing health­i­er com­mu­ni­ties and em­pow­er­ing young peo­ple with the knowl­edge need­ed to make pos­i­tive lifestyle choic­es.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion added that it re­mains com­mit­ted to work­ing with part­ners, ed­u­ca­tors and com­mu­ni­ties to strength­en pre­ven­tion ini­tia­tives and re­duce the fu­ture bur­den of can­cer and oth­er to­bac­co-re­lat­ed dis­eases in Trinidad and To­ba­go.