Australian kids and adults nationwide have heard of Healthy Harold, Life Education’s loveable mascot. For over 30 years, Healthy Harold along with Life Education has become an expert at teaching Australian children how to value themselves by living a healthy lifestyle and avoiding drug and alcohol abuse. But few are aware that Australia’s favourite giraffe is also an accomplished world traveller! For nearly as many years, Life Education has had affiliate organisations in Barbados, Cyprus, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Macau, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Spotlight on Hong Kong

Harold and his Hong Kong friend, Holly the Horse, have been working with Hong Kong’s Life Education Activities Programme (LEAP) for 15 years. An extremely multicultural country, Hong Kong has its own set of needs and challenges that have contributed to some of LEAP’s unique program elements. The following interview with Ms. Vence Poon, LEAP’s Senior Education Officer, gives us some insight on how Life Education functions in Hong Kong.

Q: How does the Life Education program work in your country?

A: We are known as Life Education Activity Programme (LEAP) in Hong Kong and the structure of our service is pretty much the same as other Life Education counterparts.  We offer programmes to nursery up to Year 6 classes in the mobile classrooms; and we deliver Year 7 to 9 programmes in the school classrooms.  For more information of these programmes, please visit our website www.leap.org.hk.

Each student who participates in the LEAP session pays a nominal fee and each student receives a workbook and the teacher receives a CD-Rom for follow up work.  Since we live in a very multicultural and multilingual city, we offer our programmes in three different languages – English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Thus, the educational videos are slightly different for the three programmes, but the core content is very similar.

Q: What are the major problems Life Ed is focused on resolving in your community?

A: Recent statistics show that the drug abusers’ age is dropping, and NGOs such as ourselves have been requested to teach the children about illegal drugs at a younger age, as early as Year 1 to 3 age groups.  Youth drug abuse causes grave concerns in the community.  We believe that parent education is very important in successful drug prevention so starting in 2006, we offered a Parent Programme, entitled “Safe and Successful” to schools who are participants of the LEAP student programmes.  Again, please visit our website for details of the Parent Programme.

To keep our programmes up-to-date to meet the ever changing social issues, we also promoted two new programmes, titled “Cyberchoices” and “Positive Image” for upper primary and lower secondary students.  The “Cyberchoices” progamme helps students to develop skills to stay safe in the cyberworld and handle problems like cyberbullying and “Positive Image” helps students analyse how the media has influenced people’s perspective on their body image and build up skills to think positive about themselves. 

Q: What are the unique aspects of your program as they apply to your country?

A: In the first year of our operation (1994), we offered only the English programme, using the Australian version. In the second year, we also offered Chinese programmes, having had the Australian version dubbed into Cantonese. However, that has been changed and improved.  Since Hong Kong has an unique culture, the programmes have to be specially designed to fit that, and we are proud to have our own locally produced teaching materials that are tailor made for the local culture; one set for the Chinese speaking students and one set for the English speaking students who may be children of expatriates or returnees of overseas immigrants. So far the programmes have been very well received and the teachers praised about the locally adapted materials.

We are also the first Life Education operator to offer a tailor made programme for students with special learning needs.  There are all together 18 units in the Special Needs Programme, which could be delivered in a special mobile classroom equipped with a hoist to enable wheelchair access, or in the school’s classrooms.  We work closely with the schools on the needs of the students with varying intellectual abilities, and offer the Programme free of charge.

Q: What are some exciting things that you’ve achieved recently?

A: We just had a series of events to celebrate LEAP’s 15th Anniversary, which included the launch of our new logo, a new website, and a new mobile classroom.  To further promote our organization, we also held a graphics design competition for the exterior of the new mobile classroom.  The winners were then interviewed on a television children programme and their entries exhibited in various locations. 

Q: Anything else you’d like to say?

A: LEAP helped the Macau Government set up their static Life Education Centre there in 1999.  We provide them with the teaching materials, help train their educators, and enjoy a very good working relationship with them.  Like LEAP in Hong Kong, service to Primary, Secondary and special needs students, as well as to parents, are available in Macau.  We are very privileged to have the right to operate Life Education in all Chinese speaking territories, and hope eventually to be able to reach out to the students in China.  With 350 million smokers and at least one million dying every year in China, drug prevention education is the key and LEAP has a great role to play starting with this generation!

My children were fortunate enough to have a Life Education visit whilst at day care when they were little. Their excitement afterwards took days to subside. They talked on and on about what (puppet) Harold said, not occurring to them that it was what Mum and Dad tell them all the time too.

But the real learning was visible when the moans and groans about cleaning teeth were transformed into a ‘Harold said……’ on the importance of cleaning them. So Mum and Dad didn’t get the message across but a giraffe with no teeth to them is the authority on dental care. Well – it worked. And for months and months after, the recall on what ‘Harold said..’ worked beautifully.

And even after a few years, I can still emphasise the cleaning teeth issue and refer back to Harold and get a positive result.

It then occurred to me that in the eyes of a child, no matter how big or small, it sometimes takes that third person (or giraffe) to back up the messages of Mum and/or Dad, because, as we all know, what do Mum and Dad know!

And in trying to understand why the Life Education messages work, I came to the conclusion that it is about respect. My children have a respect for Healthy Harold and for the educators from Life Education and I believe this is earned because it is mutual respect.

The educators cover topics in a non judgmental and age appropriate way. When parents try and do this, it is combined with hopes and more so their fears. But together, we make a great team. When your children get the opportunity to participate in a Life Education experience, as parents, ask questions and listen, really listen, to what messages where important to them. Supporting these is a valuable way to reinforce those teachings and even learn a few things yourself.

When you first have children, you are told the hardest part is getting through the sleepless nights and tantrums. But the reality becomes clear as they grow and venture into the world that it is going to be a long hard road to ensure that they come out the end as healthy happy adults.

There is no manual on raising children but I feel a little more confident that Life Education has my back when it comes to helping guide them through those issues that life is going to throw at them. But it is a team effort.

Marisa Wilson

Parent of Matt & Emery

Firstly, a happy new year to you! We would again like to thank you for your support to Life Education in 2009. 2010 promises to be an exciting year for Life Education but before we go too far, we would like to let you know what we achieved last year!

In 2009, Life Education reached almost 700,000 children across Australia and provided education and support to their families and teachers. Here is just one example:

“Just a quick vote of confidence in Healthy Harold. Our 4 year old son has been very limited in the fruit and vegetables he would eat, despite our best efforts. Harold recently visited his preschool and from that very afternoon the change in his eating habits has been remarkable.” (NSW Parent)

Life Education Tasmania was formed to allow us to bring our drug and health education program to children living in this state. We (and Harold!) are really looking forward to meeting many new young children in this State!

Life Education also visited two mining towns, Collie in Western Australia and Blackwater in Queensland, and was able to provide our health and education programs.

The Gold Harold Awards took place in July at The Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney. This is the second year that the Gold Harold Awards Night has been held. The night is an occasion to recognise people who have contributed to the healthy development of children through their work, philanthropy, or volunteer efforts. Recipients of the Gold Harold Award included journalist and TV presenter Melissa Doyle and The Menzies School of Health Research.

A new education module called “Mind Your Medicine”, highlighting the dangers of the misuse of medicines, was launched. Mind Your Medicine has been extremely well received in schools and has been delivered to over 93,000 children since its release in February this year.

In December, Life Education held its first International Conference in Sydney. Delegates from all over Australia and Life Education’s international community came together to share information and skills. It also gave our teachers the chance to update their knowledge and skills and be reinvigorated by the many topics our international speakers presented.

Life Education is well aware of the need to provide people with information and resources on drug, alcohol and health issues. As a result, we redesigned and updated this  website  to provide more information and resources.

“Ocsober”, our main fundraising campaign, was a huge success. The money raised goes directly to Life Education to give more children the skills and knowledge to say “No” to drugs. Our thanks go to our Ambassadors who endorsed and promoted Ocsober, our Legends who gave up alcohol in October, and their supporters who gave their financial support.

2009 was a time for strategic planning for Life Education. Life Education completed a five year strategic plan which has the aim of allowing us to reach one million children across Australia.

Parents are a vital influence on their children and during 2009 Life Education continued to conduct Family Forums and Parent Information Sessions.

These achievements only happen because of people like you who believe in what we do. 2010 will be a year of new challenges for us at Life Education. We know, however, that with your support we can meet these challenges. Our children are our future.

Experts from across Australia and the globe met in Sydney from the 12th to 14th of December for Life Education’s Inaugural International Conference to provide insight, research and possible solutions to fixing Australia’s drug and alcohol problems and educating Australia’s youth.

The Conference was organised to celebrate Life Education’s 30th year in operation, to bring together Life Education agencies from around the world and to help raise awareness and gather knowledge from qualified experts.

Knowledgeable speakers from all over the world lectured about programs, theories, psychology, science and methods around issues with drinking and drug use throughout the three-day conference.

Hubert Sacy, (at right) Director General of Éduc’alcool - a Quebec-based not-for-profit organisation devoted to alcohol education and prevention, has had 20 years experience in efficient, science-based and documented alcohol education and prevention programs that work. At the Conference he showcased their successful alcohol education programs for youth in Quebec. Hubert Sacy chairs the Social Responsibility Committee of the Canadian Association of Liquor Jurisdictions, is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions, Chair of its Communications Committee and Alcohol Education Section. 

Belgium social educator Peer van der Kreeft, who is responsible for interventions, campaigns, projects and programmes of De Sleutel, (the largest organisation for drug problems in Belgium), discussed  school based universal prevention at the Conference was a valuable insight for all.. Kreeft has worked with the European Union-Drug Addiction Prevention Group (EU-DAP) since 2003 and holds ongoing training, consult and supporting positions for projects in Russia, Romania and Indonesia.

Another of the many inspirational speakers at the conference was Trevor Grice, (at right) who is the Founder Director of Life Education Trust NZ and co-author of The Great Brain Robbery, a best seller describing the negative impact of drugs on the maturing brain. Grice has lectured at many international forums including The House of Commons (UK), British Headmasters Conference for Public Schools (Island of Jersey), and World Health Organisation New York Conference. Grice discussed the empowering of parents when it comes to drugs, alcohol and their children.


At the end of a jampacked three days, all agreed that the bringing together of our Life Education colleagues from all over the world (many pictured above with LEA National Chairman Tony Hasham AM including the UK, Finland, Hong Kong, Macau and New Zealand), together with the truly outstanding speakers, was an unforgettable and inspirational experience.

Healthy Harold made a special guest appearance at the recent Primary Principals Association Annual Conference held at the Sofitel Hotel in Sydney this November.

Harold thoroughly enjoyed "mixing it" with the Principals, who in turn were more than delighted to have their photo taken with the famous Life Education mascot.

Harold's appearance at the conference was courtesy of Advance Life Photography who for the last six years have been staunch supporters of Life Education Australia and share our committment to ensuring all Australian children receive the benefit of drug and health education.

photo: Mr William Bird, Principal Kingsgrove Public School and Healthy Harold

The 2008 Life Education National Evaluation

57% of Australian Parents Believe Their Children are at Risk of Falling Prey to Alcohol and Drug Abuse

More than half of Australia’s parents believe that their children may become victim to drug and alcohol abuse, with an astounding 40 percent admitting it keeps them lying awake at night, a survey conducted by Life Education, has found.

The survey, which interviewed over 1,000 parents Australia-wide, also found that 96 percent of parents thought drug and alcohol education should be a priority of government, with almost two in three parents saying the government does not do enough to educate young Australians about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.