Completely given up sale of cigarette at a village in Sri Lanka

Background and challenges to implementation “Katthapahuwa” is a village with 1341 population locates in Kurunegala district. Among the social issues, cigarette consumption was high; at baseline server reveled that ¾ (341) of adult male consume cigarettes. There were 21 cigarette vendors scatted all over the village. Nearly 1550 cigarettes were sold per day its value was USD 504.16. Intervention or response Interventions started in late March 2016, with developing a youth club at the village in collaboration with Sanasa Rural Development Bank. ADIC had trained 16 village youth leaders to overcome cigarette issue and they had identified one of the strategy was to reduce the cigarette availability at the village. Firstly, youth leaders met the vendors' association (VA) and emphasized regarding how Tobacco Company cheated vendors for small profit and explained that how much money they have stolen from our village. Future educated VA on their children also will be trapped by the tobacco industry. The main argument was made by the VA that if vendors stop selling cigarette, selling of other goods may reduce because customers move to other shops. We explained them that majority of the customers come not for cigarette but Tobacco Company taught you that business runs lost if not sell cigarettes. Finally the VA decided to stop sell cigarettes. Vendors needed one month period because they already purchased cigarettes. Mid Jun of 2016, all vendors stopped cigarette selling totally. The youth team organized an event to appreciate service of vendors. Interactions continually maintain with vendors by the youth group today too. Results and lessons learnt 21 vendors totally stopped cigarette selling, nearly USD 15124.92 money served for month. End year server reveled that significantly decreasing of cigarette use by 43% (147) and 13 persons quitted use. Conclusions and key recommendations The decline of cigarette consumption in a village can have a big effect on the stop sale of cigarettes