ENERGY deputy minister Magna Mudyiwa’s son on Friday launched a non-profit making organisation and implored stakeholders to put hands on deck to implement transformational changes to protect young men and girls from drug abuse.
Edison Mudyiwa told guests at the launch of Safe Haven in Harare how he had struggled with both soft and hard drugs before finally wrestling free.
His mother was at a loss of words, overcome with emotion of how the scourge had affected her children to the point of seeing no redemption but was happy there was a ray of hope shining through the shutters.
The deputy minister explained how she had been widowed in 1998, left to look after two sons and one daughter.
As she struggled to juggle the life of a single mother who was also chasing personal ambitions, her children fell into the trap of substance abuse — alcohol and marijuana which became a gateway to more dangerous substances like cocaine and codeine cough syrup.
“I have seen it all,” the Zanu PF Member of Parliament for Mudzi West said on Friday at a function her son Edison had asked her to be guest of honour.
“…When you are inside your home faced with these problems you think you are alone. I am widow. My husband passed away 1998. My children were very young. The oldest was grade 5.”
She continued: “Being a widow I thought I was doing the best for my children. I had situations which I came across because of effects of drug abuse. If I am to say them all we will spend the whole day here. I worked with a lot of pastors. Every pastor at church knew my situation — it was affecting me psychologically and emotionally. At work I could not participate. Whenever I thought of it, it would eat me up.“
She added:”Pastors prayed for me but I never saw immediate change. I thought my children would go forward with school and progress with their future but because of drug abuse they failed to go anywhere. They were affected with drugs at a very early age, one of them I think he was only 14-years-old.”
Mudyiwa said when she discovered that “this is the situation it was too late.”
Her breath and joy had been sucked out of her body and replaced with a pain so powerful.
“So I know how much it hurts. They will be enjoying but as a parent you are hurt. I was stressed, had high blood pressure, depression you name it. What helped me was my faith and hope that they will change,” Mudyiwa said.
“I want to thank God they is some change. (But) for one of my son’s its too late for him. He is in his own world. You are trying to reason with him but you can’t get through to him. My six months grocery would be taken. My plates, pans, you name. I dismissed many house helpers thinking it was them but the thief was my own son.”
Mudyiwa said many would be forgiven for believing that because of her high ranking government position her son’s are well off but that is not the case.
“Bronco, cocaine, mapiritsi emapenzi, you name it. They would go out in the morning only to come back at midnight. I got to a point where I said ‘if my sons pass away so be it.’ So you can imagine the experience as a parent,” she added.
Mudyiwa, however, said she was proud of her son for turning a new leaf and having the guts to speak out.
Speaking of the organisation’s aims and beliefs, Edison said he was ready to work with various stakeholders to educate young adults on the consequences of taking drugs.
He called on treasury to avail funds to fight the scourge as well as assist make rehabilitation centres more accessible.
“As a survivor of drug abuse I saw it prudent to be instrumental in formulating programs that salvage the lives of all those still bent on using drugs in different forms,” Edison said.
“Drugs are not only lethal but a serious threat on humanity. Sustainable solutions have to be implemented as a matter of urgency to fight this cancerous scourge,” he said, adding that government should set aside a national-drug-abuse-day.
Blessing Duri of the International Coaching and Mentoring Foundation of Zimbabwe said drug addiction had become a Zimbabwean challenge.
“A United Nations’ research journal says one in every 10 youths suffer from addiction. We are roughly 16 million people in Zimbabwe and one in every 10 translates to 1,7 million young people who are suffering from addiction and to me this statistic is very frightening. Its a problem that is real and that is not next door. It speaks of a bleak future,” Duri said.
He added that his heart bleeds that universities had become an epicentre of drug abuse adding he hoped the newly found Safe Haven would help empower young people to navigate life with self awareness and responsibility and a sense of purpose.
Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ) is on record acknowledging that drug abuse has become rampant, with the authority terming drug abuse epicentres as “flash-points.”
