daniel chigunwe
Trust Freddy
Herald Correspondent
FOREVER Associates of Zimbabwe Trust has joined the ongoing fight against drug and substance abuse being spearheaded by the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation and other development organisations.
Running under the theme: “Drugs and Substance Abuse: A threat to Vision 2030”, the campaign opened in Harare East constituency and will subsequently spread across the country focusing on curbing drug and substance abuse.
The overly subscribed event at Fountain of Life College in Greendale yesterday, saw school children and church members joining hands with a ministerial task force committee on drugs, speaking with one voice against the vice.
FAZ secretary general for Harare East Mr Nyasha Manhau called upon members of the public to unite and fight the drug abuse menace.
“We realised that there is a vacuum that is being created by drugs because most of the active youths that are supposed to be in industries, our future leaders, are the ones that have been affected by drug abuse, hence we took this opportunity as FAZ to create this dialogue,” he said.
“We want to have an all stakeholders dialogue. We took the people that are well experienced in this and we have the inter-ministerial committee here comprising the Ministries of youth, of Home Affairs, of Social Welfare, of Health and dealing with drugs and narcotics.”
The Government has set an inter-ministerial task force to find solutions to drug and substance abuse.
Taking a leaf from President Mnangagwa’s nationwide campaign against drug abuse, Zanu PF candidate for Harare East Cde Mavis Gumbo and the party’s wards candidates in the constituency took part in the anti-drug abuse campaign.
Cde Gumbo vowed to continue to support the President’s vision by advocating a drug free society.
She said she was working on various youth focused projects to take them off drugs in line with the Second Republic’s thrust of leaving no one and no place behind.
Drug addicts narrated how they ended up sinking deeper into the dark world of substance abuse and found it more difficult to bounce back.
“My first marriage ended dramatically, I literally lost everything,” said Pardon Mutizira (32), who has been struggling with mutoriro (crystal meth) addiction. “My family and friends ended up shunning me. Please stop doing drugs!”
Having successfully recovered from being a drug addict, Charles Saujeni (27) of Old Tafara now considers himself one of the lucky ones.
“I had this irrational fear of bathing and I used to have sleepless nights merely because of drugs,” said Saujeni, as he narrated how he ended up suffering from ablutophobia, a rare situation that involves the fear of bathing, cleaning or washing.
He said he was not only rehabilitated, but was now a responsible son to the community and moved on to being someone who was actively working on bettering Zimbabwe.
The event was spiced up with musical performances from Zimdancehall artiste Boom Bheto.
Online Reporter