Getting drug and alcohol addicts out of their cocoon

Loise Nduta Gathairu, 65 has dedicated her life to help drug addicts get out of the cocoon of addiction, a cause of indiscipline and rebellious to authority among youths, writes PETER MUIRURI

She cuts the image of a caring mother with her warm infectious smile. There is little in her demeanour to reveal the challenging life she has led for the last ten years as she single-handedly struggles to care for victims of drug and substance abuse.

Loise Nduta Gathairu, is the founder of Vifukofuko Residential Recovery Centre near Kikuyu town. Hers has been a long and tedious journey that saw her almost stop her formal education at Class Seven.

Despite her love for school, Loise was an average pupil whose low grades could not get her admitted in any secondary school. In 1968, her father Onesmus, then a teacher, decided to take her to Highridge Training College to train as a P3 teacher, the lowest grade in the teaching profession.

Undeterred, Loise, by then a primary school teacher enrolled for the O-Levels as a private candidate despite the fact that she was already married and had given birth.

“Those days, one could sit for exams and be a housewife at the same time. I remember finishing the CRE paper and heading straight to the labour ward for delivery of my fourth child,” she recalls.

In 1983, love for education would see her family selling a piece of land so that she could proceed to India for further studies, leaving her mother to care for her children. However, she had to take her lastborn child with her as she was too young to be left behind.

Determination

“Sadly, I was told that I could not qualify for a degree course since I had no A-Level certificate. I could only qualify for a diploma course. However, I had gone to India for a degree course and once again, I had to go back to high school, this time in India, for a three months’ course in A-Levels. Thereafter I enrolled for a degree in Sociology, Home Science and Ethics at Panjab University. Our studies were disrupted yet again during the disturbances that followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Ghadhi,” says Loise.

After graduating in 1986, Loise returned to Kenya, this time doing a stint as a secondary school teacher. She would now come face to face with the undesirable results of drug and substance abuse.

 “As a secondary school teacher in the 1990s, there were many cases of indiscipline that would be brought to me by the head-teacher, though I was still not a fully-trained counsellor. Many youths were rebelling against parental authority. As we came to learn, drugs and other abusive substances brought to school by students were contributing to the problem. These included cigarettes, marijuana, even local brews such as muratina and chang’aa,” she says.

Deeper problems

According to Loise, there was the notion that those were just cases of general indiscipline, yet there seemed to be an underlying factor that caused the students to behave the way they did. Invited counsellors, she adds, would only give the students a general talk that did not go beyond the surface. Something more needed to be done to help the students.

During a party she had hosted for her friends and youths at her home, one person suggested that she considers a fulltime career in counselling owing to her warm and inviting character.  A teacher by profession, Loise did not think she had what it takes to be a counsellor. She did not even have a clue as to why her headteacher had requested her to join the counselling department.

“My friend took it personally to help me achieve what she thought was my “goal in life”. She even brought me a book on counselling she had sourced from Israel. She would go on to tell me of a “very nice” college that trained counsellors here in Kenya that I needed to join,” says Loise.

Viewing it as her calling, Loise did exactly what her friend suggested and enrolled at the Kenya School of Professional Counselling in Kariobangi. The centre was already organising students for diploma and certificate courses and thereafter for a Master’s degree in Counselling Psychology.

In 1999, a number of friends contributed funds for Loise and a few others to go for a one-month workshop in the UK where they were to get proper briefing on what their course entailed.

In 2001, Loise made a trip to the United States to visit some of her children in what was supposed to be a one-month affair.

“I ended up doing another course in substance abuse and was later hired in three rehab centres in a span of elevent years. Since I had not yet achieved my goal of helping my fellow Africans, I had to come back home in 2010 to start Vifukofuko Residential Recovery Centre. I hope to make a contribution in offering a better life to families and individuals affected by alcohol and drug abuse,” says Loise.

Loise had to visit a number of local rehab centres to see the prevalence of the problem and some insight as to why many abused drugs. According to Loise, the very definition of a drug addict was misleading.

“Many drug addicts are often viewed as social misfits even by their families. However, drug or alcohol addiction is a disease just like any other, such as diabetes, cancer or heart disease. Drug addiction is a disease of the brain that may require medical treatment in addition to counselling,” Loise says.

Loise, however, notes that society as a whole including religious leaders have demonised drug addicts rather than take a proactive approach and address issues within the family circle that make some resort to alcoholism and drug abuse.

Says Loise: “When a student is found drinking, he is expelled from school. Other parents just transfer the “problem” to another school. We get angry at the person rather than attack the problem.Our judicial system should have drug-related courts and an option of having such convicts sent to rehabs rather than jail. Jailing does not address the reason behind the crime.”

Struggle

Unlike that popular view, Loise says addicts have a constant struggle to get out of the problem much like a butterfly in the pupa phase. Her centre’s name, Vifukofuko, is a Swahili word for the chrysalis or pupae stage with its metallic gold colouration.

“This stage in a butterfly is one of little movement, but once they are free, they are the most beautiful creatures. The same is true of addicts who have the potential to become productive members of society. A rehabilitated person is like a new-born who needs to be nurtured by all in the family. Family members should not get angry at rehab centres in case of relapse, but need to keep assisting the individual,” says Loise.

Supported by friends, Kenyans in the Diaspora and personal savings, the centre that has a capacity for 30 people has so far helped 28 addicts recover. Three of her staff members were former addicts rehabilitated through the centre.

“Despite financial and societal challenges, what keeps me going is the joy of seeing just one more person coming out of the cocoon of addiction. There is no cause for joy than seeing rehabilitated persons visiting us and encouraging those going through the programme,” says Loise.