NEWS |

By Catherine Patience Jimu

Bua community Day Secondary school students in Traditional Authority Mlonyeni, Mchinji district have been advised to stay away from drug and substance abuse to avoid derailing their academics.  

 The call came after an organisation called IMind visited the school recently. IMind is a Blantyre-based organisation that deal with mental health awareness among the youth.

The organization’s Executive Director, Mercy Mkandawire, said it was undeniable that drugs and substances continue wreaking havoc to many secondary school going students in the country.

“Drug and alcohol abuse continues to be a major health risk among students. The commonly abused drug is Indian hemp because it is locally and commonly found and hence peers influence each other to fall prey into the abuse of it.

Another problem is alcoholism. There are strong indicators that alcoholism slowly compromises performance in class and eventually contribute to failure in examinations; we therefore would like to reduce this risk,” she said.

Mkandawire was however optimistic that the awareness talk would bring positive change in the minds of the youths who attended.

She said: “As you know drug and substance abuse leads to mental depression, may contribute to the spread of HIV and AIDS and untimely deaths. These dangers can be avoided by staying away from drugs, hence a positive change is expected.”

 A form 2 student Sophlet Amadu, described the talk as an eye opener on how best they can handle issues to do with drug and substance abuse.

On her part, Bua CDSS Head teacher,  Ireen Kawale thanked the organization  saying it has come in time as this is currently one of the big problems at the school.

“In fact, if drug and substance abuse is left unchecked, the next generation may end up being illiterate since most of them may end up dropping out of school; leading to a vicious cycle of poverty so we thank them for this awareness,” Kawale said

IMind organisation started on 29 September 2017 and its members are students from College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing, The Malawi Polytechnic, and Malawi College of Accountancy among others.