WeeklySA_AdminRESILIENCE: Provincial social workers helped her to fight off the downslide and now her children are happy to have their mom back…
By Thabo Motlhabi
“Healing myself, I’m breaking cycles of trauma and nurturing a foundation of love and resilience within my children”.
These are poignant words of a Soweto mother, Thandeka Ngobe, a recovering addict whose life under the spell of drugs almost destroyed her family and posed problems for her neighbours in Protea Glen. Since then, she has turned the corner and picked up the pieces to make it up to her children who were traumatized to see their mother – their source of strength and stability – crumbling.
Thanks to the timely intervention by the Gauteng Department of Social Development, assisted by local business, Ndobe was able to fight her demons and overcome addiction during her admission to a habilitation centre in Nigel with success.
The department recently organized a homecoming ceremony to celebrate Ndobe’s new beginnings as a drug-free member of the local community, which had earlier witnessed – with concern and intrigue – Ndobe’s home being a sanctuary for drug addicts and unseemly activities.
Now a proud mother to her relieved children, Ndobe told the welcoming party that she was enjoying a new lease of life of “healing myself, breaking cycles of trauma and nurturing a foundation of love and resilience within my children”.
She cannot thank enough the department’s life-affirming drug awareness campaign, whose mission is to eradicate the distribution of drugs in the province. To achieve this goal, the department works with law enforcement, private sector, and community members to ensure drug-free neighbourhoods for their children. As part of the programme, Ndobe received an additional boost of having her house refurbished for her family – for a new start.
It was a joyful yet emotional moment for this 37-year-old mother who spent the festive season in the rehabilitation centre in Nigel without celebrating it with her beloved family.
With a voice choking from emotions, Ndobe recalled how alcohol and drugs ruined her life and negatively impacted her children’s lives. She could not endure the pain and indignity of being the subject of ridicule and shame from community members calling her off-spring “children of druggies”. She vowed never to go back to substances, and expressed how her body now felt differently, adding that “sobriety can be a wonderful feeling”.
Things had gotten out of control for her after the death of his husband, leaving to take care of everything as a single parent. This burden was too much to carry, so she opened up to her friends as a shoulder to cry on. Instead, doing so became a turning point and pathway to drugs. Addiction affected her health and her children started to suffer as she would sell stuff at home to buy drugs to get high to forget her problems at home.
Her house became a hotspot for drug users and criminal activities and the environment, exposing her children’s lives to instability – something that affected them academically and health-wise.
Acting head of the department Bongani Ngomane said, “I commended Ndobe for taking a brave step for the sake of her children’s future. We thank her for her resilience and for returning home to start a new life in her community and with her children. As the department, we are proud of our social workers for stepping in and referring Ndobe to the rehabilitation Centre”.
This has been a life-changing moment for her family. Now they can recover the lost time and focus on the future as one. Community members came to welcome and celebrate with her and her children in their newly renovated house.
