By John Njenga
As a young man growing up in Kibokoni estate of Mombasa, Taib Abdulrahman was always disturbed by the sight of drugs addicts who roamed the streets and alleys day and night. He had schooled with some of them- both in Madrassa and primary school and he failed to understand why they had chosen the doomed path of drugs abuse.
“I was brought up in a strict religious setting just like most of my class mates. It therefore really pained me when they begun using drugs. I decided that with time, I would do something about it as a way of giving back to the society,” Taib told The Plu in an interview at the offices of Reachout Centre Trust, an NGO that he started in 2003 with a view of eradicating the drugs menace in Mombasa and the larger Coastal region.
Members of health committee on removing legal barriers to
treatment and social inclusion of Key Population.
The centre is located in a small office tucked in Kibokoni a crowded part of Mombasa’s old town. But it is from this little old office that the NGO is doing a lot of work to assist drug addicts in the town to recover from addiction and also realise the dangers of drug use. For the last 13 years, Taib has never taken a break or looked back.
“Our staff go to the field- in estates and villages – helping in the collection of data which is necessary in planning the outreach programs,” he says. “Some of the data includes trends in drug use in the Coast region and also around the world and relate it to what is happening in Mombasa.”
The data is necessary for planning and through it, the organization can know the effectiveness of its activities at any given time and also determine whether it is making any difference to the local community. It also helps the organization to determine priority areas of concentration so that its campaigns can be effective.
Taib explains that the centre partners with local religious groups such as the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya among others to carry out awareness programmes targeting drugs addicts.
Reachout has also partnered with international groups such as the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCV) program.
“Mombasa is one of the towns in Kenya that have been badly affected by drug abuse and has the biggest share of more than 26,000 drug users in the Coast region. This has left many young people addicted to the drugs and unable to work for a living. Many others have also contracted HIV/AIDS. We are doing all we can to help change the situation,” Taib avers.
Mohamed Swaleh a Team Leader at the centre, says the centre has been very active since then because of the increasing drug abuse in the region and an increasing HIV prevalence.
Today, the centre offers various services such as Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), an in-patient rehabilitation program, a re-integration program for those who are affected, outpatient services and advocacy. The outreach program was started in 2005. It covers a vast area in and around Mombasa town which includes Kwale, Kilifi and Ukunda.
Among its activities, outreach is the most difficult because it involves going to the dens where the addicts hide to inject themselves with drugs. Some of the dens can be quite dangerous to the outreach staff. “When we reach the drug users, we try to convince them about the dangers caused by the drugs, particularly heroine, which they seem to have easy access to despite it being a very dangerous substance,” says Swaleh.
Sometimes, the centre uses those who have recovered from drugs to convince the victims about the dangers of drug use. “There are times when we use village elders to identify the drug users and their dens so that we can reach them,” says Swaleh.
The most important aspect of the centre is that those who recover from addiction, which may take a long time, are assisted to find gainful employment. There are many who have benefited from this arrangement and left drugs for good. Now they are living normal lives and according to program officer, George Mlanda, some have been re-integrated with their families.
When someone is referred to the Centre, the team charts out a plan for rehabilitation depending on the level and nature of his addiction. Mlanda says he participates in planning of such rehabilitation and it is always his joy to see those who are cured return to normal lives.
“I enjoy my work very much because I help in changing the lives of drug users. But there is still much to be done to change the grim situation in Mombasa,” he adds.
