Tobacco.org

Rendez-vous with . . . Sara Bogdani, Youth Advocate with For a Tobacco-Free Albania 

I am 17 years old and I study at "Harry Fultz" high technical school. I have had many different jobs in my short life. The last one was promoting cigarettes for Philip Morris. But I gave it up and I work now with the Association For a Tobacco-Free Albania. . . One of them was smoking a cigarette, so I offered him one of Marlboro cigarettes, as I started the presentation. The two men were listening to me very carefully, and at the end of my pitch the non-smoker told me about his job. He was Roland Shuperka, the WHO anti-tobacco counterpart and the president of the Association "For a tobacco-free Albania". He tried to convince me about giving up this kind of job and starting the collaboration with him. He gave me his phone number. I promised to call him. Nevertheless some time passed by until October , when he came to my school, on the occasion of the "Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals" to show the film "Making a killing". I was still working for Philip Morris. I was really shocked by what I saw. . . I told my story as the sisters Pupa had told how tobacco had terrible consequences on their family: Nevila and Arlinda's mother died in October because of smoking and their Dad has lost his voice after a laryngectomy. Nevila and Arlinda are my age. We work together. We want to pass a tobacco control act and reduce the percentage of young smokers. We are organizing for World No Tobacco Day and supporting a local hospital that is going smokefree.

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