BY TAFADZWA MHLANGA
AN organisation which promotes social cautiousness, Shifting Your Mindset, last Saturday hosted a campaign against drug abuse in Mbare high-density suburb in a bid to encourage youths to shun drug abuse.
The campaign comes at a time when there are alarming reports of drug-related deaths, and school dropouts due to drug abuse in old suburbs such as Mbare, Tafara and Mabvuku among others in Harare.
Shifting Your Mindset is a United Kingdom-based organisation that works to transform the lives of vulnerable communities across the globe to address social challenges around poverty, gender inequality, racial inequality, mental health, drug abuse, quality education, and clean water and sanitation.
Francis Kaowa, an official with the organisation, urged government to take prompt action to deal with issues of drug abuse across the country.
“We no longer have the young girls and boys that we thought we had as a country and the situation is getting out of hand. We, as an organisation, ask government to try and deal with the situation as fast as possible,” Kaowa said.
Shifting Your Mindset chief executive officer Mutsa Mukaka said the campaign targeted youths aged between 10 and 25 and was aimed at reaching out to 100 000 young people by June this year.
“The commonly used drug on the streets of Zimbabwe is crystal meth, which is a scientifically proven lethal weapon because it either takes the life of the person or they become mentally deranged within at least a year. The sad reality is that the majority of the substance users are approximately from 10 to 25 years of age, which is a crucial developmental period when a young person transitions to independent roles,” Mukaka said.
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“In a nutshell, the aim is to prevent the young people from drug abuse in order for them to live to their fullest potential and restore hope for the future. These young girls and boys should try to change their focus from drugs to being more innovative,” she said.
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