BUJUMBURA, January 23rd (ABP) – The rehabilitation of young drug addicts is a better way to reduce the risks associated with drug use. This was revealed last Wednesday by the Burundian Association for a World of Peace without Drugs (ABMPD) working for the detoxification and rehabilitation of these young people.
According to Valentin Havyarimana, national coordinator of ABMPD, the rehabilitation is possible considering the analyses made by the association and the awareness-raising on the reduction of risks associated with drug use.
However, the rehabilitation is not easy, because drug addicts find themselves in hot spots, inaccessible for people who do not indulge in drug use.
According to him, the rehabilitation of these young people within the ABMPD is done using three community approaches, which are community awareness; community mobilization and community action. Through these approaches, this association organizes talks in order to help people who indulge in drug use, he said, adding that these talks require an approach appropriate to this category of people.
“The rehabilitation of young people addicted to drugs is easy if there is collaboration and communication between our association and the parents of these young people, but also when there is non-violent communication towards the young person in a situation of drug addiction,” said Mr. Havyarimana.
“When you discriminate against the child, he will tend to go and live with other drug users in hotspots or houses under construction,” he revealed. He also stressed that this rehabilitation is facilitated if there is consent from the drug user, and has the will to give up drugs. In this case, he said, the ABMPD uses psychologists and then it is the patient themselves who make the decision to stop taking drugs.
Mr. Havyarimana wanted to point out that these young people are not mentally ill as some may think, they rather have particularities. It is when they are in need of drugs that they show signs of mental illness, he added. In this case, they do everything possible to get some. He recommends that the government support organizations working for the well-being of youth, especially on their socio-economic reintegration, and significantly support the empowerment of young people, especially since among those who take drugs there are unemployed people who could not find work after their studies and who did not have the idea of creating employment for themselves, despite the call of the President of the Republic to create jobs.
You’ve got to know that drug use through injections and sharing syringes can cause the spread of diseases if there is an infected person in the group.