As part of the public relations and community engagement efforts, the Customs Drug Detector Dog Unit along with the Division of Juvenile Justice, Bureau of Public Safety joined forces to conduct an outreach program for the 6th to 8th grade students in Ngardmau, Ngerchelong and Melekeok Elementary Schools as part of an awareness series. The Outreach Program was conducted from 6th – 8th September, 2023.
While the Division of Juvenile Justice program aims to educate the students on “anti-Bullying” and promoting good behavior in schools, the Bureau of Customs Drug Detector Dog Unit also had the opportunity to provide the students with an understanding of their role, the importance of staying away from drugs and how we use the K9 dogs as a tool to detect and search for drugs in our fight to protect the border against drugs coming to Palau. While the students really enjoyed watching the dogs search and detect drugs as part of our demonstration, we hope this program will continue to have a positive impact on the students. The outreach program was a success and we plan to deliver more programs this year.