Prayer centre rehabilitates “Wee” smokers

Fifty-eight drug addicts, alcoholics and commercial sex workers are going through rehabilitation at the Gethsemane Prayer Center at Jejemereja in the Jaman North District of Brong-Ahafo Region.

The centre, in an outreach programmes picked the patients, made up of 31 females and 27 young boys between 12 and 35 years, from some communities in the district.

It is providing them with food and clothing as well as the word of God for spiritual nourishment, Prophet Daniel Kwame Ansu, Director of the Gethsemane Prayer Center told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit to the centre.

He pointed out that smoking and peddling of Indian hemp were rife among teenagers in the area, with many girls engaging in commercial sex activities.

Prophet Ansu said feeding and accommodation was becoming a problem because population at the centre kept on increasing and appealed for support from philanthropists and Non-Governmental Organisations.

He said teenage pregnancy had led to high school dropouts in the communities.

Nicholas Kwasi Boah, a teacher and a reformed “wee” smoker, told the GNA that he learned smoking when he was in Senior High School.

He said he had smoked the stuff for the past 12 years, which had rendered him homeless until he came in contact with the centre last two years.

Samuel Nti, another drug addict, and a Senior High School graduate at the center, who said he was lured into drugs by a friend when he was in Junior High School, said he had smoked Indian hemp for 10 years.

He pointed out that it was not easy to quit smoking when one is addicted and advised those who want to stop the habit to visit the centre for assistance.

Now a leader of a prayer band at the center, Master Nti appealed to parents not to shun their children who engage in drugs and alcoholism, but rather support them to seek rehabilitation.

The GNA gathered that many of the patients at the centre learned the unhealthy lifestyle through peer group influence at Senior High School.