As Zimbabwe battle drug and substance abuse among the youth, the Islamic community has partnered government to fight the scourge by capacitating the youth with knowledge on the dangers of drug and substance abuse.
Recently, the AN-NISSAH Women’s Association in Zimbabwe held a one week workshop in Epworth, Harare for young girls to conscientise them on the dangers of drug and substance abuse.
The workshop attracted representatives from across all provinces, who will be peer educators when they get back to their provinces. Girls from other religions were also integrated into the programme.
Speaking to the media at the sidelines of the workshop recently, Mrs Ruqayah Chirimba, the Chairperson of AN-NISSAH Women’s Association in Zimbabwe said the motive behind the workshop was to equip young girls with knowledge and life skills on fighting Drug Abuse and also how to avoid temptations such immorality, sexual activities and child marriages.
She said after interacting with parents who were benefitting from the organisation’s programmes, there was a request to come up with child programmes to solve some problems facing the young.
“The parents that we were having in our programmes said please also give this information to our children. So for the past seven years, we conduct these workshops where we touch on various issues to help them shape their future.
“Now that the country is fighting Drug Abuse and also child marriages, our aim is to save the children because even as young as 9 years, they are engaging into drugs and also into sexual activities. At times during holidays like these, children take alcohol and other drugs, they get drunk and some end up being raped so we are teaching them on how to avoid these things,” she said.
She added, “As an organisation we also teach them on morals, living in harmony with others, respect, our culture and we seek divine help from God that these kids will be obedient and be good examples in communities.
Mrs Chirimba said the organisation was formed to help and support women and young girls so that they overcome challenges which confront them in the journey of life. The organisation carries out outreach programs where they visit farms, villages and other communities.
Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs President, Sheik Ismail Duwa weighed in saying the Islam community was committed to fight drug and substance abuse and was propagating anti-drugs and substance abuse message to communities around the country to ensure that noone is left behind.
“We operate in all the 10 provinces. We are sending the message about drug and substance abuse to all our 1338 mosques, and that’s to 1.5 million Muslims in Zimbabwe. The message is delivered on our services on Fridays when we do our prayers. We are also talking about drugs in all Islamic forums,” he said.
“All these government programmes align with the teachings of the Quoran and even the Bible. We are also into other community health programmes like anti chorela and we have a responsibility as a religion to save the community from perishing. Praying is not only going to the church but God commanded us to save our communities and that is what we are doing,” he said.
Sheik Duwa, however, lamented the penalties on drug offences which he said were not deterrent enough hence he called for stiffer penalties for those involved in drugs if the country is to win the war against drug and substance abuse.
“We have been discussing in the Inter-Ministerial Committee that the penalties are very low. I think if one is arrested for drugs, the fine is about $30 or so. We have been advocating for stiffer penalties. Remember these things have drug lords who are making millions of dollars by killing our children, our people because they need money, so we need stiffer penalties,” he added.
“I even suggested, we could use Sharia law, to which the committee laughed at, of course because we are not an Islamic country, but the point is we need stiffer penalties to send a strong message,” he said with a chuckle.
Sheik Duwa also encouraged people to report to the police so that perpetrators are arrested.
“We have seen that some people do not want to report peddlers to the police. The police cannot fight drugs on their own. They need the public to play it’s role, so I encourage people to report. At the moment the police is doing their best but to do better we need the public to tell the police where these things are happening,” he added.
A senior official from the Ministry of Youth, Ms Memory Manyati who also delivered a presentation to the girls at the workshop, said government remained committed to pinning demand and supply of drugs, as well as empowering the youth so that they are occupied with meaningful activities.
“As government, we are intensifying our youth programming efforts towards the demand reduction pillar. We want to ensure that we reduce demand on drug and substance use by the young people especially in hotspot areas in Harare and other parts of the country.
“As the Ministry of Youth, we are imparting skills, that is the soft skills and life skills so that the youths can work towards building their life and have knowledge on how to empower themselves.
“Through the Empower Bank Free collateral free nano-loan we are encouraging young people to apply for funds so that they embark on income generation projects,” she said.
The recently launched collateral free nano-loan is expected to assist the youth, who in most cases have brilliant business ideas but do not have the securities required by most financial institutions.
Government has responded heavily on the scourge of drugs with an aim to restore sanity that used to prevail in our communities. In October, the inter-ministerial taskforce led by the Minister of Defence Hon Oppah Muchinguri reported that raids and operations against drug suppliers, dealers and peddlers saw 5 367 offenders arrested and a total of 81 bases where drug users and peddlers converge to sell and consume drugs, were destroyed between 7 July and 23 September 2023.
The arrests from this three months period (5 367) was more than the total arrests made in the year 2022 which stood at 4 328. This shows the magnitude of the problem of Drug and Substance Abuse in Zimbabwe.
Research carried out by the United Nations Children’s Fund, in collaboration with the government, Muthengo Development Studies, Zimbabwe Civil Liberties and Drug Network, and Youth Advocates Zimbabwe this year showed that 60% of school dropouts in the country were as a result of drug and substance use.
To curtail the inflow of drugs into the country, four ZRP Drugs and Narcotics Units have been established at four border posts, namely Beitbridge, Victoria Falls, Chirundu and Mutare, in addition to other anti-smuggling measures already in place.
