Catholic church holds anti-drugs and substance abuse fun-run

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter

THE Catholic Church’s St Bernard’s Mission in Pumula yesterday held a fun run to raise awareness against drug and substance abuse among youths where it emerged that the scourge proliferated during the Covid-19 pandemic era with calls for a continued all-inclusive approach to dealing with the challenge growing louder.

Speaking at the Catholic Annual Run for Empowerment (CARE) at St Bernard’s Mission, Detective Constable Nhlanhla Phiri of the ZRP’s CID Drug and Narcotics division said they witnessed an upsurge in drug-related cases from the start of the pandemic.

“In the past, Zimbabwe did not have a drug problem. Drug abuse was not rampant but during the Covid-19 era, that is when we started seeing a lot of people abusing drugs. During that time, people were not working and the means of survival were very limited. Movement was also limited so, among the youths, idleness led to a lot of drug use. As the CID, that’s when we saw an upsurge in the use of drugs. We started seeing a rise in cases of drug abuse because of the aforementioned reasons,” he said.

He said it was encouraging that the church was coming on board in the fight against drug and substance abuse among youths fulfilling its mandate of having a morally upright society.

Father Tom Kutwah of St Bernard’s Mission who is the brains behind the event said they decided to host a half-marathon because they felt that it was an effective way of bringing people together to help fight a scourge that was affecting families.

“We wanted to collaborate with influencers, bloggers, or local media outlets to promote this event and others in the future of a similar nature. So, by combining a half-marathon and a drug awareness campaign, we thought we could have a great and powerful event that could promote a healthy lifestyle while helping those affected by drug addiction.

This has raised a lot of awareness within the Pumula community because important stakeholders were present to share insights on how best we can deal with the scourge. We are thankful to everyone who put their hands together with us as part of the random change that we are trying to inspire as part of the strategy to fight this scourge,” he said.

Zimbabwe is currently engaged in a battle against drug and substance abuse, with President Mnangagwa last week launching the Zimbabwe Multi-Sectoral Drug and Substance Abuse Plan.

At the launch of that plan, President Mnangagwa said the drug and substance abuse menace needed all hands on deck as no nation could develop fully if a portion of its citizens is addicted to drugs. If left unchecked, the President said, the deadly vice would continue threatening not only Zimbabwe’s developmental prospects but that of the world at large.