Fudan University set up the city's first student social work team involved in preventing drug abuse yesterday.

About 80 students have signed up to be part-time social workers with the Fudan Ziqiang Youth Volunteer Team, which was set up by students at Fudan's distance education college.

Most of the student volunteers will work as narrators at the Shanghai Drug Abuse Prevention Museum or tutoring the children of local drug users.

Before they start their work, however, they will be educated about drugs and addiction, self-protection and given psychological training.

The students won't spend any time working face-to-face with drug addicts, according to Shanghai Ziqiang Social Service Council, a non-government organization focused on drug abuse prevention and the Fudan team's instructor.

"Considering university students' young age and lack of social experience, we should make full use of their high education and abundant free time, but we won't expose them to any possible danger," said Zhang Yan, a Ziqiang official.

She said professional social workers and psychological counselors are needed to work with drug users.

Currently, the city has more than 2,000 anti-drug volunteers working in 232 local community stations. Most of them are professional social workers.

Fang Li, who helped set up the Fudan team, said the university would kick off a public recruitment campaign on campus next month. She expects the campaign will convince about 200 volunteers to join the anti-drug team.

Other local universities, such as Tongji and Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, are also talking with the Ziqiang Council about establishing their own social worker team, council officials said.

(Shanghai Daily April 25, 2005)