Individuals of Influence Selectees

Robert van der Feyst

Robert van der Feyst is a Capetonian who has been doing drug education programs at schools since he returned to South Africa after being successfully rehabilitated at Narconon in Denmark in 1999. The Narconon programme changed Roberts life and he decided to give others the same chance he had by educating them, especially those most vulnerable, our children. He has since spoken at 100’s of schools reaching over 150 000 students and millions more via radio and TV. Robert goals is simply to give the youth the “Truth about Drugs” which is the name of the Narconon drug education program that is having excellent results in Cape Town, and around the globe. His observation has been that, “people want to feel good and drugs can seem like the answer, unfortunately, substances have side effects which outweigh their ‘benefit’. These side-effects are often not known or buried beneath false information which has in some cases become ‘fact’, for example, there is much commentary on marijuana being a plant, and thus ‘good for you’ because it is ‘natural’.”

Robert continues, “other drugs similarly have false information surrounding them but I take the scientifically proven facts and communicate them in a way that inspires the youth to be drug-free.”

Since the inception of the “Truth about Drugs” program in Cape Town the team has monitored their results by means of “before and after” surveys that the students fill out. This is done to find out what is working, where they can improve and also to remain in touch with where the youth are at.

Because of this action the program has had an excellent response; in a recent project of 5000 respondents, 80% of those who said beforehand that they have tried and want to still try other drugs, said afterwards that they have changed their minds. Some comments from this project were include ;

“I will never use again”

“I learnt a lot today about what drugs do to you so I’ll never take it or try it”

“..I will never do drugs and I’ll help others make good decisions”

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Besides drug prevention the program also covers other subjects; one program done at almost every school is called “The Way to Happiness” based on the booklet of the same name, a secular “Common sense guide to happiness” authored by L Ron Hubbard. Included in this program is a Way To Happiness DVD; the purpose of this part of the program shows that true happiness comes from being honest, productive, constructive and part of making things better. This DVD was produced for the youth and the response received is also excellent.

After this part of the program 82% said that they will change the way the act in life. Some comments made afterwards were;

“It has shown me that your life can be fun without drugs or alcohol”

“That by watching the DVD we can make the world a better place and make other people’s lives better”

“It made me realize I can make a difference too”

Robert and his team also run peer leadership programs as well as other life improvement courses and workshops. Robert is motivated simply by the satisfaction of seeing the results of his work, “our purpose is to help make the youth as able as possible so that we can make South Africa a great nation.” An aspiration I am sure all South Africans support!