MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Johannesburg woman is coming to Mossel Bay to help drug addicts living on the streets.
She has been working to uplift and rehabilitate addicts living in a squatter camp in Alberton in Johannesburg.
After receiving a number of calls from desperate mothers in the Garden Route area, saying their children are addicts and there is no rehabilitation centre in this area, she realised there was a need to establish one here and felt drawn to come to Mossel Bay, to work where the need is.
Evette Kruger owns two non-profit companies, Fearless Life Ministries and Addicts' Voice.
She says she has been in discussions with the Democratic Alliance, which is the governing party in the Western Cape, and with the Mossel Bay Municipality, about establishing a drug rehabilitation centre.
Feeds and clothes people
Evette's Fearless Life Ministries feeds and clothes people, feeding 2 400 people per week in Johannesburg with food parcels.
She says: "With Addicts' Voice, we work with addicts on the street. I have been working with the unemployed in Alberton for the last three years and want to duplicate what we are doing there in Mossel Bay.
"We rely on donations and sponsorships and put addicts into rehabilitation centres.
"Because the Garden Route does not have a rehab centre, addicts there have to be sent to Durban and Johannesburg."
Evette says she has contacts throughout the Garden Route.
Community centre
Besides a rehabilitation centre, she wants to open a community centre in Mossel Bay. It would be a central point to support the community. Evette will run support groups for addicts and their families. "It will be a safe place for addict to come to say they need help."
She also plans to start a feeding scheme.
Evette is a certified life coach and counsellor. "I have also done business coaching and trauma counselling. One of my clients told me about the squatters' camp in Alberton and said people there needed help. I went there and I realised the great need. We do life coaching courses in rehabilitation centres, from a drug addict point of view."
Evette says drug abuse by people living on the streets is a huge problem. "It's one thing for parents to help children from their homes, but people on the streets are written off and have lost their families. It's often their own fault. They don't get a second chance and people don't believe they deserve a second chance.
"Many souls are being lost." She says that if addicts on the street are not helped, they die. Evette wanted to be in Mossel Bay on 1 August to start her work, but commitments have delayed her. She would like to get to Mossel Bay as soon as possible.
She is keen to partner with anyone who has the same mission as her. Contact Evette (evette@fearlesslifecoaching.co.za or 082 966 7438) to join forces with her.
Fearless Life Ministries and Addicts' Voice are on Facebook.
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