CommuTalk Reporter
GWERU: A Midlands-based mental and drug rehabilitation institution is facing an uncertain future amid indications that the center is left with essentials that are enough for two weeks in the wake of a rise in patients who require rehabilitation due to drug and substance abuse.
The challenge emerges as Zimbabwe has been experiencing a sharp rise of children and teenagers resorting to drug and substance abuse with officials also admitting that issues of mental health on adults are generally on a rise.
Located some 12 kilometers outside the city of Gweru is Queen of Peace a mental and rehabilitation center that has been facing the tough task of taking in teenagers and elders from the streets for purposes of rehabilitation who have increased the burden on their day to day essential needs.
Apart from an increase of inmates from around 40 to around 60 from the end of last year, the institution’s new burden is on the lack of the usual donor assistance from the cooperative world who seem to have forgotten this critical institution.
“We are in a catch-22 situation with regards to our essentials. Our budgeting has been strongly affected. While we have seen some of our patients leaving the institution after being rehabilitated, the influx of those from the street is worrying.
“The cooperate world has not been forthcoming as they used to do in the past. We are just hoping that someone out there might see that we don’t completely run out of food,” said Queen Of Peace Board Vice Chairperson, Berrington Mutembedza.
The institution which recently acquired land for expansion from the government is hoping to decongest the center once some of its infrastructural projects get the necessary funding.
