Andorra's Projecte Vida Launches 'Trenca l'estigma' Campaign to Combat Addiction Stigma

Projecte Vida has launched the "Trenca l'estigma" campaign, a year-long sensitisation drive aimed at dismantling prejudice around addiction and prompting earlier access to support in Andorra.

Backed by the government, Escaldes-Engordany council, and VSA Comunicació, the effort began on 30 June with ten OPI-format posters placed in Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany. Each features a QR code linking to resources covering 19 topics, including mental health, social exclusion, family impacts, poverty, migration, neurodivergence, harm reduction, recovery, and community support. The images, created using artificial intelligence because affected individuals declined to appear publicly, seek to portray the human side of addiction—highlighting risk factors such as trauma, adverse childhood experiences, or neurodivergence—while avoiding group blame, moral justification, depictions of violence or drug use, or dismissal of personal accountability. Eva Tenorio, the organisation's spokesperson and former president, is the sole real person featured.

The campaign shifts focus from substances to people, arguing that stigma, self-judgement, shame, and labelling erect barriers to treatment, foster isolation, and delay recovery—issues amplified in Andorra's small community. Tenorio noted that stigma can postpone help-seeking by up to a decade, with locals often avoiding self-help groups due to recognition fears or hesitating over public services amid concerns about shared medical records. Such delays violate rights, extend suffering, and raise public costs.

Drawing on World Health Organization and European Monitoring Centre for Drugs guidance, Projecte Vida promotes empathy to improve service uptake. Its slogan—"judgement does not heal; accompaniment can open paths"—underpins four goals: easing social labels, accelerating help requests, humanising addiction as a health and rights issue, and equipping citizens to listen and support without condemnation. "This is not a campaign about drugs. It is a campaign about people," the group stated, adding that "an addiction does not define a whole life," and recovery thrives when individuals feel heard rather than ostracised.

As Projecte Vida's third such initiative, the effort aims to spark public discussion on health, dignity, and solidarity, countering stigma's tendency to silence those affected.