In this episode of the “Pathways 2 Prevention Podcast,” host Dave Closson interviews Cristina von Sperling Afridi, founder of the Karim Khan Afridi Welfare Foundation (KKAWF) in Pakistan. KKAWF was launched in 2015 after Cristina and her husband, Ambassador Tariq Khan Afridi, lost their 19-year-old son, Karim, to drug use.

Cristina shares insights into the challenges of drug trafficking in the region and how KKAWF is addressing the issue through prevention efforts focused on youth mental health. KKAWF’s approach includes a comprehensive model with five main guiding spheres: physical activity, emotional well-being, education, arts and culture, and civic sense.

Cristina discusses the importance of getting youth outside and engaged in activities, helping them identify, understand, and manage their emotions, and providing education on the dangers of drug abuse. She also emphasizes the need for civic sense and being a good human being to make the world a better place.

The conversation ends with Cristina’s advice for listeners: To take care of themselves and to be a positive influence on others. Listeners can learn more about KKAWF and connect with Cristina and her team through their website and social media channels.

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Transcript:

Hey everybody. This is Dave Closson from the team here at the Drug-Free America Foundation, and you’re listening to the Pathways to Prevention podcast, the show where we chat with stakeholders from across the drug demand reduction spectrum about current trends in the global substance use pandemic strategies to reduce drug demand, and how to best adapt those strategies to the ever-shifting substance use landscape. Today we are talking about helping youth identify, understand, and manage emotions, and the mission of my guests here today, their foundation that we’re going to share with you, the mission is to disseminate knowledge on the adverse effects of drug use on individuals, family and society, and to break the taboos that exist around drug use and enable people to reach out for help. The foundation aims to play a role of catalyst for the youth and the communities they live in by engaging federal and provincial governments to take up the task through policymaking on drug production, prevention and use. Cristina, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Nice to be here, Dave. Been looking forward to our conversation since we had our planning meeting last month. I know we have chatted before hitting record today. Could we start off, would you mind introducing yourself, sharing where you’re at in this, this world, and what led you to working in your current role? My name is Cristina von Sperling Afridi. , I’m living in Pakistan for the past 22 years. , I’m Brazilian, by birth and also, four generation of Germans in Brazil. so I got married to, Pakistani diplomat. My husband was the ambassador of Pakistan in Brazil at that time. And we shared a common, hobby, which is horses. So he was a polo player and I was a horse show jumper, so therefore I end up, well, we had gone in many places in the world, in many countries, but here I am for the past 23 years in Pakistan. the reason that we have, this foundation that, came to exist eight years ago, it was because I lost my only child, due to the menace of drugs and, in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, eight years ago. So, therefore, I was a, a business woman. I had, other business and interior designer and I left everything. And I decide because you can imagine a mother to lose, to bury a child. He was just 19 years old. I mean, it’s, it’s not easy. So I left everything that I was doing and I decide that it’s my mission now to, to make an foundation, to open up a dialogue in the society. and put up an organization that will talk about drugs with the youth in the name of my son. Therefore, KK w f is Kareem Hannah, free Welfare Foundation. It’s his name. He was just 19. A leader, gem of boy, went to a party, didn’t work, recreational, whatever he has taken there, and he never came back home. Thank you for, for sharing about your son, the loss that that makes my heart heavy. But I do see where your, your passion, your drive comes from to honor your son through the foundation that that is, that is beautiful. Thank you for sharing that story with us. I would like to, to learn more about the, the foundation. in the introduction, I shared the mission, but could you tell me a little bit more about what you and the team do through the foundation? Yes, sure. , our team, is a, we are basically prevention that, that’s, we are concentrated on, Because we believe that there is a big gap. And us, we all know that drug is a taboo in most of the society, in the complex society that we’re living in, like in Pakistan. I mean, even worse, because there is no really, dialogue. I think there was, we were the first organization here to talk about prevention. I have to tell you for instance, that the, when my son, passed away, I said, I’m going to make a foundation. And I was telling people that I’m going to do a drug awareness, foundation. And, my son’s, uh, friend came to me and said, why, why, uh, want Auntie Christina? Why you telling people that he died of drugs? I said, because that’s the truth. I mean, are you fool? What should I say? He said, oh, why don’t you tell that he died in a car accident? So, you know, there is a lot of, taboo and, uh, and so with this, impediment of, discussion or dialogue, we each, we really don’t reach anywhere. we were the first to really one that, in the papers and the Minister of Narcotic Control went and talk openly, because kids are dying here every day. But, uh, they will talk that they have died with heart attack. No . We all know that this a teenager die of heart attack. Either there is a Terrible, sort of a problem, heart problem in the family, or he has taken something that has similarity, his heart and, and heart couldn’t take it. So, but it’s a constantly, you know, covering up. in fact, one of our programs were quite in, inspired in the Canadian program that is Mother Against Drunk, Drive. I had made it here, mothers against, drug abuse, but nevertheless, I can, I could not take this specific program out of the paper because the people feel very, embarrassing and they think that if they, you know, the mothers think that if they’re going to talk about it means that their son, or daughters are, drug users. So, so it is very difficult to. prevention, you know, because that’s what we believe that prevention is the cure. There is nothing else. It’s to talk is, and, and what we do and our foundation stands on five pillar that primarily yes is a drug, awareness, environment, sports, arts and culture, civic sense. We put all these, elements. So we, we combine in every event that we do and every event that we, that we do on the pillars, the, the involvement is with the teens and with the preteens. Now the focus is on them. we been getting wonderful results. cause you know that in the, era of technology that we live in, each one is looking at their own mobile, now even sitting together. So that eye to eye contact, that dialogue. It does not exist anymore. It’s just basically through some sort of, equipment, machine that you correspond and, that, and you show your affection. So there is all the time, something in between, not like before. Doesn’t mean that before there was no drug, but the incidence, now it’s much higher. you know very well the, the types of drugs that are available. In Pakistan, for instance. Now it’s ice everywhere and ice how is highly, addictive? And the heroin, of course is the traditional, let’s sort of say classic drug here, and Hashish of course. we have, uh, cocaine in this area. And due to this, uh, proximity to Afghanistan, you know, we proceeded this really drug trafficking corridor because everything passed through here to through Pakistan. currently the population that we have, young populations 135 million below age of 30. And this is an amazing contingent. And, and there is not really. it’s not been taken, by the government. I mean, not been showing, the responsibility of look after this contingent as supposed to be. I always refer that someone in one of our events that in fact we just, did one and, volleyball that that’s supposed to have, been, last December, um, in commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day. We play with the dates because, of the severe weather, either two cold or too hot. So we push accordingly. But this is because it was a political, problem, in the city. So we have to postpone, our event for now. And this is that we call the sport is the answer. This is our project that, safe Tomorrow Sports is the answer that, to have a drug free, Pakistan. always talk about the Olympic chart. who are those, countries that are topping for decades? The Olympic Olympic chart, United States, Russia, Japan, China, and, German. And, and, and, immediately one can connect what are the roles in the world? They’re leading the world because only sports can give you discipline and unity. And, uh, we emphasize on the team sports that today, We need support of each other to help each other. And team sports are always there, for you. Yeah. so therefore, volleyball with the rugby, every year we, we do, big event on different, modalities of team sports. And this, proved to be very successful. But unless the government does not engage or in implement its own policies, which are very good because it, it’s, they say that, a minimum of four hours of, physical education per week, it’s, compulsory, less the education institutions, fail to do so. They have to be shut. But the problem is that the policies are good, but who is going to implement them? So therefore, our foundation, we in search and, continue to, uh, develop, a mechanism of self-defense because law enforcement enforcement has failed. Drug business is enormous, is the second bus business in the world. with that comes rehabilitation that involves so many medicines and, personnel that are involved with that? with, drug abuse and mental health as well. So, where I live, I live outside Islamabad only in this place. For instance, there are six rehabilitation center. But are, are they good Rehabilitation center, which standard are they followed? Certainly not International standard. Therefore, we are the voice as a civil society that we go to the Ministry of Narcotic Control. And we announced this and I said, you have to control. We’re not controlling. The neither the, the, they say, the trafficking of, of drugs and neither the Rehabil Rehabilitation Center because uh, here there is no law, for you to open a private clinic. So therefore anyone can open and, uh, it’s according to their own type of treatment and according to your pocket, if you can afford, you can, can go to a deluxe treatment. If you can not, you’re going to be tied up in some bad. So, and who is controlling all this? But nevertheless, , we had presented one model, the national, standard model to the ministry where they like very much, cause I said that it should be a center of rehabilitation and training controlled by, The controlled by the government. So only people that have been trained in the center that is controlled by the government will be able to open a private center with the certificate of the government. otherwise there will be no control. So, so far. We are just talking, four corners, like, you know, talking about, prevention that, prevention, only really people that focus in prevention are people that are really wise, huh? Because we all know they, that, it’s an overload in the health, system of any country because it’s not only a mental problem, but to affect so many organs in your body. So extra to go there, extra to go in the other, in, in a public health system. So it’s a overload. The so, I think it’s mission forever and it’s not easy to sell prevention. It’s easy to have a rehabilitation center because you have the product in front of you, but to sell. Prevention, for someone, to sponsor, the continuous, uh, various programs that we have. I, designed many of them. So it’s quite difficult and many of them, we have, right now we are, with the United Nation, U N O D C grant gave into, a program that we designed that, uh, a video competition that the solution, of drug abuse from youth to youth. So we are in the process of, finishing this, and get the, the winner of this video. Which once we are done is going to be shown in every education institution and also and headquarters of UNODC. So, that is one of our program. Apart from that, we are always creating some, program to get closer to the community. No, because there is no point. sometimes you have conference that the audience that is there, it’s an audience that’s already know everything, but we go into the grassroot level. We go in every education institution. Being public, uh, schools, college and universities. And also, on the private, education institution, which the privates are in a situation that is just, narcotic is like a, a pandemic. It’s unbelievable, the amount of consumption right now. So what we are trying to do is just to put sense in a person’s, mind that, the only thing that you really own in your life is your own body. And it’s, the way that you’re going to treat your body. Is that going to result in your life? The basic like this, how are you going to is during your period of adolescence that you are forming, your body, forming your mind, whatever you are going to put inside you, that’s what going to reflect later on. So, that’s, basically, what we do. it’s a non-stop job. there was so much wisdom in what you shared. I’d like to, to unpack that a little bit. You, you had shared about the challenges you face in Pakistan with the ice, heroine, hashish, cocaine, and how it’s a drug trafficking corridor and drug business is enormous. I want to say you said 135 million people below the age of 30, Yeah. but you have. The courage to speak up and speak out against what is taboo and it’s not easy to to sell prevention. Where have you found some, some positive success , in speaking out and speaking. first, after, after I lost my son, I have to have a reason to live, and I felt that since that I have no kid, every kid is my responsibility, and that’s what I keep on telling. The, the people also, you know, you is not, you are responsible from your, for your neighbor kid. You know, these are, we are talking about the future of a nation. I talk about that drug abuse is a national security threat, especially in this region, with geopolitical situation that you really don’t know who is your friend, who is not. I mean, let’s not forget, the war inflict by the British on, in China, the opium war. So China was completely destroyed that they were all hooked in an the Chinese, Super seriously. The, the situation of drugs, the control is tremendous because imagine a nation that is all intoxicate. What kind of future you can expect, in this, political situation that I told you? The proximity of Afghanistan. And then we have Iran by our side, and then we have China, and then we have India, and so we have this, all this region because once you capture people’s mind, that’s why I insist on the national security threat, you capture the. Because it’s like the donkey and the carriage. I mean, I put the carrot in front and I take the donkey wherever I feel like. So the most important thing that I believe is to look after the mental health of the youth. I really, I should not say this, but frankly, I don’t care about the older people. My concern and my focus is on, the youth. That’s where you have to teach them and put sense in their mind. So, it is everywhere. And, and, and with this addiction, you know, so many, so many consequences, of the, the word of addiction. For instance, I also insist to say in the , government here, that there is that on the ground, community that we all know that, sons and daughters of prostitutes and, drug addicts. So they reproduce, they continue to produce, they continue with the addiction. And what is their, the way that they live is under selling themselves, selling the kids. And this is not only in Pakistan, it’s everywhere. I mean, you end up in a vicious circle that you need money for your addiction, right? So you end up selling yourself, end up reproducing. And so you reproduce, you create human beings with no moral values whatsoever. What is their value? Where they’re going to hang on, what is right and what is wrong? So they will not know because they are grown, grown up in this,, highly addictive, community. So this, no one is pay attention and there is no data according, it’s like, you know, they exist. They exist, but they don’t. and this is the future. These people are going to grow and the criminality will increase. And so many other things, consequence of this, this community that no one is paying attention, So, I find that, here, because I’ve been living here and I always insist that it is alarming because it is like three days ago, we have a 13 years old girl jumping to the third floor of his, her school and commit suicide. So this all reflects because I say that if we really think about how we used to behave when we were a teenager, we will understand more and we tend to forget. and then we become like our own parents. No. so we lose that sensibility. And I tell the kids that for me, the seven years of this adolescence is the worst period of one’s life because you feel yourself so insecure. You don’t know anything. You are learning, you are experimenting, you are vulnerable, and you trust people. You are a face of trust. And so anyone that will come closer become your friend and you really do not know the intentions because then there is that period that you know very well. Cause it’s a common, way of a teenager that everybody is their friend. But the. So this is a typical pattern that they will be listened to their friends, but not the parents. So we try to make them understand when I go for my presentation in the schools. My presentation goal specifically, like when you talked before now, helping identify, understand, and manage emotions is specifically to what’s going on during the period that you were you were living. I say that anyone have felt choked and want to cry in some time with no reason at all. Because the hormones are playing havoc inside us unless. You understand and you put in equilibrium. In, in, I balance your body and your thoughts together. Unless you understand what’s going on in your body with the hormones during that period, you will think that you are suffering, that you are in a happy person. How many times I say how many times you slammed the door, and then after you get surprised yourself, then say, oh my God, what did I do then? You know, shout back and, and you feel, feel bad because the hormones are play, have inside and there is the only solution. And this is everyone. I said, no, there is no gender or there is no color, or there is no religion that makes this difference because this is part of. So if we do not understand what’s happened to our body at that moment, we’ll think that we are suffering and you know that all the adolescence have the problem of the world and that in their shoulder they think they are right And all God, all the, you know, it’s everything is happened to me and it stopped. But the solution that we find and then at this I back, cause I’m also did sports throughout my life. The only solution, and I always tell the kids, I said, you know, our body is, is so perfect that we have even the kick within. We do not need extra kick. Because if you play any sports, if you do any activity, physical activity that you enjoy, you’ll stimulate your end of thing and you’ll feel good, you’ll feel powerful. You’ll be, you become a positive person because now everything you, you know very well. It’s, I’m depressed. I’m depressed, so I’m bored and I’m depressed. So this is a part of, and uh, people accept this very easily that I’m depressed. And so it’s not, it’s lack of engagement with your own body. if lack of understand with your own body, for me, that is, once you understand that you have to pass through all the prestigious thing, all this acne, all the, the beard start to grow. The hair is start to go. Your voice is start to change. All these things that one, find ridiculous and being, bully and laughter, laughable about when you are in schools. I mean, this is, everybody’s gonna pastor it. So, once this is very clear and, is spoken in a community is spoken in a, in a, in a room with many people, so that is no, doubt there. What’s happened to us many times is that after my talk, the, girls are crying because you know very well every house near or far has a case of abuse. And on the drug, the intoxication part of it, even worse. Cause when there is drug involved, the alcohol involved. So, I mean, it’s, it’s a violent, violent, environment. and of course many people suffer and, if it comes from the parents, the kids are going to either indulge or they will be completely outta it. And, so it is, this is a very serious, for me, today is one of the worst problems that the world is suffering. Is the, is the, lack of awareness or maybe, you know, lack of, let’s say, empathy. We became quite very individualist and very robot. So it, it’s, we just say, that’s not our problem. But everything that you see, it’s your problem. So it’s your responsibility. it’s not one person a disease. It’s a entire family is sick. The entire family get, affected financially, morally, I mean emotionally. So it’s, it’s, not an individual disease. Yes. Yes, indeed. And I, I agree so much. The, the focus on wellness discipline, and a couple other words that came to mind too were self-accountability and also self-love. In, in my own journey with, with alcohol, that was big for me was learning to love myself yes. knowing what that meant and how to do that and letting myself do that. Yes. But so, , you see the challenges, you see the, the barriers and you still stand up. You go to the government, you go to the community, and you insist that it is alarming. And the most important thing yeah. I say that we, we must continue this. This is our mission. And, sometimes, you know, how do you say that? Why me? You know that feeling that. You know, I’ve been a good person and why should I lose my only child? I mean, you know, you get that feeling, of, but someone has said to me and said, you know, look at this way. You came from Brazil. You married a Pakistani, I mean, different, countries, different cultures, different religion, and then you end up living in here and, you lose your early child. And, maybe that was written for this mission that you have. And maybe I may , I take as a consolation, you know, as a, so I feel good. Do what I’m doing, but I wish more people will be involved in that. Unfortunately, like I say, and, if anyone is a drug, user, they will not get married. The family will find out and they will not find a pair for that boy or for that girl. So everything becomes very difficult. So you end up living in a hypocrite society. You see one thing is what you are for your parents and what and other things, what you are outside. So you li really live, double life, double personality, which is, in most of the time are in conflict. So unless you know one ad address, even parents wise, how they should. See that, the kids have the right to choose. They have to right to choose their career. They have the right to choose their partner, which in this kind of society is most, is not there. it’s been already decided what you’re going to be. So your choices, your, decisions, to lead a life been done by someone else, not. By you and, you will not challenge there because it doesn’t look good, because at the end of the day, it’s known that the family knows it better. , the, the youth is very squashed. the sense that, why should I go in if they have a talent, for instance, they know the professional, most value valuable is either an engineer or a doctor. And this, like, I’m always telling them that the schools don’t like, but I say that, let me in this school, that, let them decide what they want to decide. Because we have only one life that we know. If we spend that life doing something that you don’t enjoy. This is a miserable life. I have seen myself so many doctors that been made a doctors by the family, but they have no talent whatsoever. So when you go to a public hospital, the doctor is just looking at his Facebook, his mobile, while the corridor is full of patients. You know, the is way so that, humanity is not there because it’s not his talent. Maybe his talent was a singer. So what I’m saying is that we have to have responsibility for our failures, for our destiny, but we have to have the, the possibility to choose. And that’s very important. But in a complex society that we live in, it’s, many times in the West, for instance, don’t even know what you want to do. But here, there is a debate and the person will decide. The family will decide what you do. You know, like for instance, is a family of doctors. They’re all doctors. And when the one that doesn’t decide to be a doctor, so he looks like a black sheep, the family. so this is, our awareness. It should not be just focus on the adolescence is our main focus, of course, but we should also be, Looking after the, parents, the mothers and, and, and fathers, which should understand better that, you know, each one should own their own life and make it easier. Maybe you have less frustrated people. Huh? Yes, and that is that, and I will not summarize that because that was so beautiful. I would like to, to visit about, The five main guiding spheres of interest for the foundation. I know you had shared those with us, but you, you shared them Oh, so quickly. I think they’re, there’s, they’re important and would, would love to learn more about the five pillars of drug awareness, environment, sports, art, and culture and civic sense. Can you tell me more about. Yes, for instance, on the drug, I think I spoke a bit on the environment. I mean, I’m an environmentalist, and we, what we do is that I live close to a river, and, uh, every year we have this, Kipling. The name of the river is Quran. So we get like, 10, 12 different schools and we make, on the shore of the, the river, we divide the shore of the river in stations. And then with lottery, different schools, they are going to get their stations. And that is, we make them clean. Whoever cleans more, more bags full of, Dirt, whatever it is, residues, they will win the competition. So it’s a very fun, it’s an outing with music, with, lots of talks. We get the press for them to get excited. we put the boat in the middle of the, the river, flags everywhere. and we, we have a point because we invite the underprivileged schools and, the privileged schools, the chain of big schools that we have, we put them all together. We make point that all events that we do. We use, t-shirts. We make t-shirts because everybody’s equal. So we do not want people to differentiate for, through their social class. So whoever is the, you know, a cleaner or driver son or whatever is this, I mean, it has the same, treatment and the same. So there, it’s already a message in the bottle. We can, we do not accept any kind of, social difference. yet there are, but we do not accept on our event. And this is a very interesting event because of course it comes everywhere in the media. so the kids, we have, a big, uh, what do you call? not lunch, but brunch. So all kinds of things. I screen this and that. So, and, they, their participation, it’s amazing. Today we have, so many that on and off I meet there. Oh, I will, auntie Christina, I always remember that day that we spend there doing this. And then so at the same time, they are together. They’re competing because I do not agree. Comparation Like, someone is better than the other. I don’t agree with, but I think that all have to have competition. And they have, they have to prove themselves, this competition academically. that, of course there is some that are genius there, some that are excel, but is not making this, uh, culture of straight As is stressing all these kids. And I said that we should not do this. We should focus in the human aspect of it. Because now what we need is, is good human beings. Forget about this academy. there’s, there’s fixation of academic. I mean, we need good human beings. So the environment, it’s, you know how it is, people. Throw things everywhere, it’s outside of the house, then throw everywhere. We create a conscious that it’s not only your house is wherever you walk, you have to look after that place. so it’s, you have to keep clean with, in fact, our motors like stay clean in every sense of, clean yourself to stay clean out of, away from drugs, keep the other things clean, so stay clean. So, this is a environment, and many times we do in the park. so if we take them out, yoga in the park. So we bring people to do a bit of, yoga, which is interest. Everything is new. And when the volunteers works, work with us, many of them, as I mentioned before, around the privilege, but we do take them, for instance, I take them too. polo Club. So we are going to have their thing. So we expose him, them in, in different ways to the golf club, exposing them in different, the volunteers that work for us after every event, we take them somewhere for a picnic and, so we keep an ex exposing them in the, of different things, aspect of life. Then, so they mature that. And, environment sports, as I told you before, sports, sports is the answer. This is our program and, everything that we have done, cycling, football, and, rugby and, Volleyball. And so, and I only like to work with the best athlete nationwide because they’re, they all belong to the national sport, the national teams because when you ask someone to, come and watch, a sport, We want to show the best to, to inspire. So we’ll have, we create heroes that it’s, it’s, it’s not there. The sports here is very, as I told you before, very, it is not been looked after. as long. The parents think that as long the kids are inside the, the house, they’re safe. , but I said safe how? Do you know whether they watch through the computer? Computer? You don’t know Another great, addiction that destroying so many as well. pornography. We all know addict to pornography. So this is another terrible thing. So I said, you don’t really know what we need to is to bring the kids out. You are always going to remember in your life the outings that you have done, that you have gone to your uncle you have gone to for, for a hunting, for swimming in a fall or, or some. You will always memorize that you are not going to memorize your childhood when you st stay inside the the house. Cause here, the, the, the weather is very severe in the very cold or very hot, but nevertheless, I said, there is no bad weather. We go out. So to endure bad weather, it’s, it’s good for a human being. And, and then someone say, oh, but it’s going to rain. Bring your umbrella so, oh, it’s too hot. Bring your bottle of water and put your cream in your face and your hand. You see? So there is no, we do not accept excuse because there we have to endure the weather and this is the way that it should be. And, arts and culture, we, in fact, we got, best practice, by UNESCO during Covid. We had done, national competition on, poster arts competition. The, again, a solution of covid to the eyes of the youth, and it was really very exciting. There. We got, three, artists to be in the jury. So it was, very exciting. So we were acknowledged by, every event. For instance, we have a week program in a school. Start with my talk and then we all this involve no when environment we make a school planted tree. The school all becomes like a red or, you know, with the posters. So everybody’s involved and know what’s going on. When you are doing a post, competition, their work is on four to stimulate debate. So four people will draw one poster. the individual only is their essays that, of course you see so much red alert also that we advise the schools, and we create data. when, uh, finish my talk, we do a survey with just very, I mean, not a very deep, five questions only with, uh, no, name obviously, but, age and gender. And, have you ever take taken a drug? Have you ever, do you have a friend who use drugs? You know, things like this. So we put that, and, and, and give, to the principal of the school after this real result of the survey. So for the, more or less feel the pulse, what’s going on in, in their own, Institution. So this and civic sense, civic sense is very important. Like we’re saying that, to leave people past, behind, you know, to open the door for someone to be kindly and gentle, to someone else. This is all parts to be the, the, the civic sense to, to love your country. to. you know, be a good human being, to know how to differentiate what is right and, and and wrong, and how you will continue to help, and, and facilitate your neighbor, people that needs. And if someone wants to pass, you’ll let them pass before you and not, so it’s a basic education, how to live in community in a civilized manner. so we believe that with all these pillars that we have combined, we hope now to, to make, a good human being that is going to, collaborate and be, I mean, make your one’s country better, not the future better. And learning you will pass. And the, with the same intensity that we do with the boys, we do with the girls because the problems, it’s equal. it’s not more, you know, the boys, they take drugs The girls are taking drugs alone. And, with the problems, also the puberty and things like that, they do not understand because. biology and, and, it’s not debate. It’s not discussed what you’re going to go through. So we open up this dialogue and we talk about sometimes, people get a bit like this because we talk about the girls period. We talk about everything so that people should know how to react. That sometimes you are so unhappy and you don’t know what it is. It is, it’s if you are growing up, you have to understand. So if you have this conscious, so things are going to be better. You know, we keep on going, keep on repeating, keep on going, keep on trying. we have a tremendous problem of finance cause every project, I’m really like a bagger. I go and knock at everybody. Company and CSR are not used to this, or you should, you really want to get involved with drug issues. We don’t know. But we, for our events at least, we’ve been lucky with the, traditional partners and very well, concepted, very well, known. Organizations that, they sponsor our events, but nevertheless us to expand the office, you know, we need more support. We need more support because if we have five pillars, we need each pillar, we need someone, focus on that and not, only, uh, because we end up with a hands tied because we want to extend the entire Pakistan. Because to move, we have to move us our own team. From here to LA or from here to . We want to develop every province we want, develop a different office. So they, we we’ll have that uniform, campaign that it’s, it’s continuous . And for the listeners, I will put a you can learn more so look in the show notes, listeners for that link. And also I’ll put the links to the foundation’s social media, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram there as well. So you can get connected with Cristina and her team. Cristina, you shared so, so very much with us today from talking about the challenges, the problems with the drug trafficking corridor, and it’s not easy to sell prevention. And then you, you enlightened us with, with how you’re able to accomplish so much and that the most important thing is to look after the youth mental health and there’s only one solution. Those five pillars that you just unpacked for us. I love how all of your programs are in alignment and speak to those five pillars which help advance, get the youth outside, get them engaged and support them, identifying, understanding and managing their emotions, the true comprehensive approach. That dynamic, multifaceted approach to prevention is, it’s beautiful. . We’ve, we’ve been talking for a while and I, I want to ask one last question for you, if you don’t mind. if you were to give our listeners one piece of advice, you want to ensure that they remember after listening to our conversation, what would that piece of advice. Well, to our listeners, at a young lot, I always say that the only property, only thing that you possess in life from the day that you were born till the day that you were going for your last breath. It’s your body. , it’s undeniable that how you treat yourself, it’s how you are going to flourish or how you are going to develop and how you’re going to grow. So I always case, get as a example, uh, you are planting a tree. You are not going to water this tree, this little tree with Coca-Cola or whatever, it’s not going to survive. But if you plot this tree and you put water, which is pure, this tree is going to become beautiful. So it is the same thing that happens to us. Why we are going to mistreat ourselves. This is the only thing that we owe. This is the only thing that we can guarantee that is real. That it’s to love yourself. It’s to treat yourself. It’s, it’s, I don’t know if we see so many people mistreating themselves No. Because of whatever, one thing they want to say. So, the main thing that I tell the listener, look after yourself. Go. I mean, it’s to be beautiful. You don’t need to have money and go to academy. You can just walk, go for a run around the lake and in the park, go up in the mountain, you see, go and waste yourself, waste your energy that you’ll bring positiveness. So when you come down, you are another person. So Dr. Drag someone with you, someone is in trouble, someone is fell for this menace of this, drug addiction. You know, so help on each other. We cannot just let it, you know, and see alo and see people crawl in front of you and not saying anything and not doing anything. We are part of each other. And one thing is that I keep on repeating that, Dave. It’s that there is no one more responsible than yourself, for yourself. Yes. Yes. And I cannot summarize that any more perfectly than you did. I think we should leave our listeners with that bit of wisdom there. It has been a delight and an honor to connect and learn about all of the great work and all the, the lessons you’ve shared with us today. Thank you very, very much. Thank you, Dave, to give us the opportunity to, to share with your friends, your listeners, the work that we are doing here. and, we are here and if anyone wants to visit Pakistan , we are here to help. And, we are part of you in any, in any case. So look after yourself and, hope to talk to you again soon. Thank you for the opportunity. Absolutely. Prevention is better together and we are all in this together.