The Takheni Rehabilitation Centre at KaNyamazane in Mbombela has been helping young people clean up their acts for almost a year now. The centre currently houses over forty people from as far as Kwazulu Natal, Gauteng, and Limpopo. It is located in the heart of the community with tight security measures.
The Takheni Rehabilitation Centre brings hope to young people who are addicted to drugs, it helps them overcome addiction. The centre currently runs a three-month program taking in new people every quarter. The Manager Irvin Mashile, says substance abuse is rife in KaNyamazane.
“Here at the centre we are trying to combat and to fight the use of drugs in our area, especially around our neighbourhood for the future generation that it must have a free drug society that’s our main aim and our clients are those people who are smoking the ones that are homeless sleeping on the streets the ones that are stealing because of their bad habit,” he said.
The 36-year-old Mashile was also an addict, he was introduced to drugs at the age of 16 and he managed to quit drugs such as dagga, tik, and nyaope after being one of the patients at the Rehabilitation Centre.
Mashile who is now a qualified accountant believes people can stop taking drugs- but says it must come from the bottom of the individual’s heart.
The patients who are currently receiving help at the centre say it has been a difficult journey – but with the help, they receive at the centre there’s hope for a better tomorrow.
The centre also refers patients to the KaNyamazane Medical centre for medical treatment. Dr. Gcina Mavuso says they are providing the services free of charge.
“Our collaboration we are providing the medical services and support and the medical side and testing and they keep them and give them shelter not exposed to outside elements but normal they released them a month before their release,” said Mavuso.
He added: “ The programme takes about four months so after the three months they release them so that they finish the months outside after we certified ourselves normal at about six months from the beginning we led them to graduate then after a year we released them,”
Once the patients have completed the programme the centre also does monitoring to ensure that they stay clean.
