Kathorus Youth NPO wants government to fund rehab centres

Moses Gama, the founder of Tsohang Youth Project, an NPO that propagates war against drugs and substance abuse in the townships, told Kathorus MAIL he hopes to garner help from concerned youth bodies around Kathorus to support him and his organisation in their cause.

He is hoping to petition parliament to demand lawmakers to prioritise the establishment of drugs and alcohol rehabilitation centres in the townships as well as in rural areas.

Gama wants the authorities to establish accessible treatment facilities both in the townships and in the rural areas where addicts and alcoholics can receive uninterrupted access to treatment and rehabilitation.

The NPO was established in 2002, born out of a ‘desire to better the lives of the neglected substance and alcohol abusers’.

He explained that almost two decades later, Tshohang Youth Project prides itself on having played a crucial role in re-directing, reshaping and remodelling the lives of many young former drug addicts and alcoholics in the communities around Kathorus.

Through the Tsohang Youth Project organisation, Gama explained that hundreds of young people have been rescued from drug addiction and offered a social support system through the organisation.

He said he is proud that the NPO still provides many of its recovered members with numerous recreational skills.
Looking back to his days of growing up in Katlehong’s Nhlapo Section, Gama described himself as having grown up surrounded by nothing but deprivation and poverty.

He explained that although the situation was demoralising, it was this constant exposure to that hopelessness that developed a sense of worth and the drive to live above the prevailing situation at the time.

“I wanted to strive to be the person I knew I was destined to be, despite my present predicament of deprivation and worthlessness at the time,” he recalled.

Driven by his search to better himself, Gama joined a number of youth organisations but some of them were sponsored by the old apartheid municipality and he was sometimes discouraged by their approach to the situation on the ground.

It was then the idea of Tshohang Young Project was planted.

Gama said the steps to approach parliament were necessary to speed up the fight against addiction in areas he believes have become epicentres of abuse.

Gama also believes the escalating moral degeneration among the youth is the result of excessive exposure to and the use of drugs and alcohol.

He believes these immoral and destructive habits can be brought to a halt before they cause irreparable damage to the lives of young people.

He hopes the current situation in the country could be reversed if the country’s youth is to be saved from its destructive path.

Gama said once established, the rehab centres would be equipped to provide recovering addicts and alcoholics with the best treatment under qualified and trained staff.

He said they will soon embark on making such a petition a reality.