Own correspondent
Tsoga Mocha, a voluntary nonprofit organisation on Thursday launched a canvas shoe wash project in Galeshewe as a self-empowerment initiative to help reforming youth drug addicts kick the habit and reconnect with their families and society.
The group, Tsoga Mocha, is an offshoot of the erstwhile “Operation Fiela,” which was a community-based, anti-drug abuse outfit that hounded alleged foreign and undocumented persons from mainly the Kimberley central business district.
On Thursday, Thabiso Louw, chair of the nonprofit organisation, said they have about 25 young men and women who have been with them for over six months.
Louw explained that they had first become acquainted with the group as individual addicts and vagrants who were at various stages of addiction.
Some were recovering addicts who had pitched up at their anti-drug abuse outreach station in Galeshewe.
He said they were keen on devising programs to help drug-affected youth in a bid to rehabilitate them, wean them off the drug habit, and afterward reconcile them with the families and communities they come from.
The canvas shoe wash project was launched at the Galeshewe small business hub precinct on Tyala Street. The plan was that the recovering addict would man their wash station every weekend at the business hub. The customer would come in and drop his canvas boots, which would get washed and later returned after drying out. The proceeds of the venture would be for the benefit of the washer.
Louw explained that part of the exercise included monitoring the reforming addicts’ use of money and the likelihood of them relapsing into old negative habits. “Money is usually the trigger for them to engage in their habit. We aim to help them overcome the urge to use the money to fund the drug binge,” said Louw.
He said in some instances; the situation was so bad for the person with an addiction that their families did not want to live with them in the same house.
“One of the addicts was caught selling toilet equipment,” he mentioned.
However, on the bright side, most of the current members were eager to stick to a routine to rehabilitate themselves.
Louw explained that they had secured the services of professional therapists, who are an essential part of their program. The experienced practitioners were on standby to assist with diagnosis and therapeutic interventions.
Louw revealed that their processes have hit a snag with the nonavailability of drug testing equipment at their site in Kimberley,
a massive blow to their therapeutic intervention efforts as the counselors must first determine the type of drug the user was addicted to in order to prescribe the appropriate intervention.
Despite this setback, the group stuck to its mission to help reconcile former addicts with their families and communities.
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