Bringing Back My Inner Peace

Drug abuse among young people increases the risk of injury and violence, road accidents, risky sexual behaviour, HIV and problems at school, and it pushes some into crime.

Isiyaku, 20, lives in Dapchi LGA, Yobe State. He dropped out of secondary school because his family could not afford it and, under peer pressure, fell in with friends who used drugs. His parents feared losing him, and the community began calling him Dantahada ("thug").

"I woke up one morning and realised my life was no longer fun, watching my age mates getting married and having families and businesses of their own. It made me stop to think: what if I give change a try?"

He met a longtime friend, Isa, a member of a peer educators' group. Plan International (BMZ), in collaboration with Life Helpers Initiative, had established an Adolescent and Youth-Friendly Centre offering counselling to young people, with a male community-based health volunteer council. Isa referred Isiyaku for the right services, introduced him to a small vegetable business so he could support himself and his family, and began teaching him to read and write.

The change was not easy, but it was real: he eats and sleeps well, takes care of himself and his responsibilities at home, and there is no more violence. With constant follow-up Isiyaku is now drug-free, and with the group's help his friends raised funds to enrol him back in school.

"This is the journey of my inner peace!"

From Helpers Digest, September 2022. Read it as a flipbook.