VGADA's Executive Director, Dr. Hope Omeiza, noted that the project is delivering support where it is most needed because a large number of young people in underserved regions lack access to or cannot afford treatment to overcome their drug addiction.
He made this statement during the Youth Alive Drug Abuse Sensitization, Self Awareness and Treatment (DASSAT) weekend workshops in Abuja, which were sponsored by VGADA in collaboration with the Soaring Youth Foundation and the Shekinah International Gospel ministry.
He stated, "It is important to get into communities like the Wumba community in Apo axis and Bagalape community in Nyanya, axis next week." This is because the fight against drug usage needs to start at the local level.
"We are kicking off this program to make sure we can reach a thousand youth in Abuja before the end of the following year.
The psychological, skill-acquisition, and social skills programs offered by this program will take place over the course of three months on three days a week. Since it's continuous, we shall circle the members of that set every three months.
"Programs for drug testing, drug resistance, drug refusal, conditional skills, self-esteem, and other areas that are of concern and may have triggered behavior towards drug use will be implemented for them," the speaker stated.
Omeiza continues, "Six clinical psychologists are involved in this project, and they are using psychological tools to determine which people will be eligible for the program."
"Some people will require incarceration in a rehabilitation center; nevertheless, our project is not intended for them. Those that fit into an outpatient treatment plan are the target audience for this initiative.
He said, "We are going to target those people through this community program, give them therapy, and then give them empowerment because what happens to them after treatment?
This is the hope and scope of the program: "They need to be equipped with skills, and we are considering the possibility of having multiple government agencies step in to support these youth with either conditional cash transfers or grants, or to also take up businesses that can increased our IGR, (Internally Generated Revenue) of Nigeria."
Chidi Ndukwu, Deputy Commander of Narcotics and Assistant Director of Media and Advocacy at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), noted that the NDLEA and VGADA are partners in the effort to raise community awareness of the risks associated with the use and selling of illicit drugs.
"The program is very helpful because many addicts and drug users live in communities like this," he stated. Given the environment, it is likely that many people will become involved in drug use; therefore, I believe the initiative is beneficial because it raises awareness among them and aids in their talent discovery.
Akinwumi Michael, pastor of Shekinah International Gospel Ministry, stated that the effort aims to save local youth from the harmful use of narcotics.
"We can use this excellent support to help us save the young people in our community from drug addiction and other social vices," he declared. We have been attempting this on our own, and what we have found is that spirituality alone is unable to cure young people's ingrained mental illness from drug misuse.
We also found that a great deal of them lack a reason to live, which is another reason we are include partners like VGADA in the plan for this rescue operation.