By Intan Rahmaningtyas
Smoke-Free Agents is a youth-led organization aim to denormalize the intervention of the tobacco industry and smoking culture within the youth community and open up a new perspective on tobacco control by appealing to them to take action for a better environment and country through hopeful communication. The current number of child-smokers in Indonesia has reached 40% of the total child population. They start smoking from a very early age, even from the age of 10 years. Children have a brain that easily absorbs information like a sponge. They may not have the ability to filter information like adults. And with advertisements from the tobacco industry, children associate smoking cigarettes as a 'cool' and a fun way of living! Cigarette advertisements are freely put very close to their surroundings, in schools, houses, and convenient stores. Smoke-Free Agents believes that every one of us can be an "agent of change" in our own environment. Watch the story in the video below, and be inspired!