Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve, Victoria Falls Reporter
IN a deeply alarming development that reflects the severity of the rampant drug and substance abuse menace, an eight-year-old child is among four patients receiving treatment at the newly established Drug Rehabilitation Centre in Victoria Falls.
The Zimpapers news crew came face to face with this shocking reality during a visit to the facility at Chinotimba Clinic.
The admission of a juvenile of such a tender age has sent shockwaves through the small close knit community, highlighting how the scourge of substance abuse is trapping increasingly young victims.
Victoria Falls Town Clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube, confirmed the child’s admission while providing an update on the centre’s development.
“We have four inmates that we are attending to, the youngest being eight years old,” he said.
“We anticipate that as the word goes that we now have this kind of a facility, we will have a number of inmates because of the problem that has besieged the country, which is drug abuse,” he said.
Efforts to get further clinical details from the District Medical Officer were unsuccessful.
The officials at the centre declined to comment, stating that divulging specific information about a patient would be a serious violation of professional ethics and patient confidentiality.
The presence of an eight-year-old in rehabilitation centre highlights the challenges the country is facing and underscores the urgent need for robust preventative community programmes to protect the nation’s youth.
Commenting on this development, Ingutsheni Central Hospital Psychiatrist Registrar Dr Loveness Ndebele said the abuse of drugs by young children was rampant and her facility at times attends to children as young as seven years old.
“We have been seeing children as young as seven years old being brought by their parents after abusing drugs,” she said.
“There may be underlying conditions or general impulsive nature of such age groups. So, when you see them being admitted to such a centre it means there is now an addiction, which we call dependence,” said Dr Ndebele
She explained the standard medical response.
“According to common practice, we have to assess for what we call 12 principles. But generally, they might not know the harm of the drugs they are taking, what I can refer to as no lucidity,” she said.
Emphasising the path forward for the eight-year-old, she advocated for a comprehensive strategy.
“For this particular case, we need a multi-disciplinary approach where we involve social workers and child psychologists so that he gets help. It could be a cry for help,” she said.
Victoria Falls Town Clerk, Mr Dube has praised the Government’s directive for local authorities to establish such facilities, calling it a vital initiative.
“The drug rehabilitation centre at Chinotimba Clinic is complete. We partnered the Ministry of Health and Child Care and Government contributed ZWG1,8 million,” he said.
There are thousands of young drug addicts, younger than 8 years old on the streets of Harare, Bulawayo and other urban areas. Why is shock being expressed for this one in Victoria Falls? Why are we pretending as if this is something new? Let’s get real. Drugs have been and will be a huge problem as long as we take rehabilitation centres as holiday resorts, drug users as celebrities and drug dealers as astute business people.