大象传媒

For 11 years, Evans, from Ghana, lived in the streets. "To survive, I had to steal and defraud people. The only thing that mattered to me was how I would get my drug," he explains. "However, I knew it was just a matter of time before things exploded and got out of hand.鈥�

No family member wanted to be associated with him. "Nobody wants to be involved with an addict," he says.

Somehow, he got himself together and out of the clutches of addiction. "It is a miracle for an addict like me to even stay clean for a day. His transformation has led to an improvement in relations with his family. And that is how he decided to share his story with his cousin, Vincent. "Vincent has always been my role model; I have always looked up to him," explains Evans.

Evans story mirrors the experiences of other families.
In Kenya, a well-known comedian Eric Omondi and his family, watched helplessly as his eldest brother wasted away as he sunk deeper into crack cocaine addiction, which eventually claimed his life.

"For 19 years our brother was addicted to crack cocaine; our efforts to help him kick the habit were in vain," says Omondi.

When Omondi came to Nairobi for his college studies, his brother did not want him to visit. "He always insisted on visiting me in college. He was afraid that I would start taking the drug and become an addict like him. 鈥淚t only takes one puff and you're addicted" Eric recalls his brother warning him.

When the addiction got the better of Omondi's brother, he started living in the streets. "People could not believe that my brother was living so rough," he told 大象传媒. "However much I wanted, I could not bring him to stay with me; whenever he came to my place, he would steal items to sell in order to finance his addiction.鈥�

One day, he went to the streets where his brother had a made home, recorded the encounter and posted on social media. "I wanted to use his example to caution the youth against getting into drug abuse," explains Omondi.

He then took the brother to lunch and compelled him to enroll in a rehabilitation center the following day.

That was the last day Omondi saw his brother alive.

To date he wonders how his brother got into addiction in the first place. "Growing up, he was not the kind of person who would get into drugs. He was a deeply spiritual person," he says.

Juliet Mureithi, who works with people who are addicted to drugs in Kampala explains that addiction is a brain disease. 鈥淲hen people start using drugs they are looking for the euphoria but they end up getting addicted to the drug,鈥� she says.

Drug addicts, she adds, require family support and not condemnation. 鈥淚t is important to make the environment safe for them to come out and say they have a problem,鈥� she adds.

If you or any person you know is struggling with drugs, you can get help in local institutions in your country that deal with these struggles.

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