Emalahleni in desperate need of help
Drugs are said to be slowly taking over our lives, our city and our country.
Drugs are said to be slowly taking over our lives, our city and our country.
Pastor Given Mavuse and his team are trying to make the Coal City a better place by rehabilitating, detox and care for those who were addicted to drugs.
Greater Emalahleni, Men@Work is trying to do greater by the hand that’s been dealt in our city.
“We have motivational talks with the people. We cover topics like ‘what is a man?’- not only to himself but to others. In relation to what God’s Word says, we help those who have lost all courage and hope. We go into the locations and try to heal their broken homes, people targeted by abuse, whether it’s sexual or emotional. We work with them at a young age and try to prevent broken adults. These are the things that destroy families and homes. If we can help them as teenagers, they will hopefully not resort to using drugs as an escape or experimenting with the wrong things,” Past Given said.
“You can choose to be an example. Drugs, abusing women and bullying are some of our main areas of focus. We met a child of 9 years old. He is called The King. He collects money for the protection of others. In other words: they pay him to protect them. We want to encourage youngsters to not resort to making the wrong decisions. They need to understand these things before they try it.”
Past Given explained that they are trying to prevent bad behaviour at puberty stage.
They are assisting those who are on drugs.
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He explained:
“SANCA will not help those over 18 years of age who does not have an address. We want to assist those on the streets and who have homes. The homeless can not go to SANCA. We assist the drug addicts to go to rehab, to detox and to stay clean. Currently we have five recovering addicts under our wing.”
Although Past Given and his team are trying their utmost best to assist addicts who want to get help, he explained that they face much more than one challenge.
“So far, everything we have done have been from our own pockets. Hurricane, Muareen and I have fed them, driven them around and helped them where we can. But it gets tough.”
Mr Hurricane Zembe is in the Skills Development department and he said that after the rehab and detox stages, the aftercare is the most important.
“We identify skills that they might have. If they don’t have skills, we give them other tasks and identify their potentials. The most worrying factor is that after they have detoxed from the substances, they relapse because they have nothing to do to keep them busy. We develop a program for them and do training. We work closely with Mpumalight Consulting and Training.”
Hurricane added that they then enter the recovered addicts to a training program.
“The municipality brought into this program where we send them on short courses to become welders and boiler makers. They can then be used in government projects as we request them to be placed as contractors or trainees.”
Past Given added:
“We have an ambassador of the program, Matthew. He was a user and left with three others for their training in Germiston. They left on Tuesday.”
They said that some of the short term challenges include operational costs, like fuel, food and administrative duties.
“We went to big retail outlets and no one would help us. We asked for assistance from the mines. No one responded to our emails. The long term challenges include a building that we would like to change into a rehabilitation centre, with the necessary facilities available.”
Past Given went on by saying that they are using platforms like the South African Community Crime Watch (SACCW) to identify the addicts who need help. He said that they went on a ‘trip’, where addicts live. “We sat them down, fed them and spoke to them.”
He said that Maureen Scheepers and her team assisted a lot in identifying hot spots, where Past Given speaks to the addicts and motivates them to get help.
“They are so willing to get clean. Then they get discouraged along the way, because they are not fed, they have no money. We are working with social development, and have submitted our documentation. The social workers at the municipality have also assisted us. There are people living in a bush in Vosman. They are in desperate need of help,” Past Given said.
He added that they reconcile addicts with their families, as they have become estranged and the families are damaged.
“We want to bridge the gap between the rehabilitator, rehabilitated and the community (families). They have to want to come back to something. They wake up in the morning and they have nothing. We do not only focus on current addicts. If you can prove you are clean, we will put you in our skills development program,” Hurricane said.
