President Maithripala Sirisena said that mothers should take the lead in making every family a drug free household.

The President pointed out that the drug menace is the main obstacle in creating a prosperous family.  He requested all the mothers to take the leadership in building a healthy nation while protecting their respective families and the society from this menace.

He made these remarks addressing the Galle district conference of the Southern Province Mothers’ Health Societies programme held at the Labuduwa Siridhamma College in Galle on Thursday (02), the PMD said.

This programme is launched according to a concept of the Chief Minister of Southern Province, Shan Wijayalal De Silva, with the aim of creating healthy people in the Southern Province.

This programme is being conducted with the purposes of uplifting the health standard of the people living in the Southern Province as well as limiting the spread of communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases in the area, moreover to educate the public regarding the nutritional status of pregnant women and children, reducing child mortality rate, promoting patterns of healthy lifestyle, making an important contribution to environmental protection, reducing the health care costs by minimizing the number of patients admitted to hospitals.

President Sirisena pointed out the importance of implementing this programme in the other provinces of the country also, and requested all the Chief Ministers, Ministers and MPs to take necessary steps to launch this programme in their respective provinces.