One Man’s Crusade to Save the Lives of Tanzania Youth

The loss of his nephew to cocaine inspired a Tanzanian man to find a solution to drug abuse. He has opened a chapter of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World in his hometown.

In the town of Tanga in northern Tanzania, a man named Hamisi has opened a chapter of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World and is bringing the truth about drugs to the people of his city.

Of the more than 500,000 heroin users in East Africa, nearly 60 percent live in Tanzania, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. And in 2010, cocaine was introduced to the region.

 

It was cocaine that awakened Hamisi to the drug problem on a very personal level, when his nephew became hooked on the drug and died.

Hamisi believes that ignorance is the prime reason people like his nephew fall prey to drugs. Searching online for something he could do to prevent more deaths, he found the Foundation for a Drug-Free World and began putting it to use in local schools.

“The program gets a high response, especially among youth whose friends and family use drugs,” he says. His students are so moved by what they learn, they have begun creating drug-free clubs.

Hamisi is having the materials translated into Swahili so his students can share the information with friends who don’t speak much English, many of whom have dropped out of school and started abusing drugs.

He is also training others to reach out to youth with this curriculum, to end the senseless drug deaths of young Tanzanian men and women.

The Church of Scientology and Scientologists support the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, a nonprofit public benefit corporation that empowers youth and adults with factual information about drugs so they can make informed decisions to live drug-free.

Through its worldwide network of volunteers and partnerships, the Foundation for a Drug-Free World has distributed 6.7 million copies of The Truth About Drugs booklets over the past year— more than 79 million copies since the booklets were first published in 2006.