Boy Child Rehabilitation Program Praised In The Face Of Budget Cuts

By MKT Reporter  

Worth Not­ing:

• “I met my son (Allan) in a cru­sade at the age of 19. The boy was so drunk; thank you Pas­tor Dor­cas for the good job you are doing. The boy was so drunk, and some­times we judge peo­ple by the out­side appear­ance. But when I met Bish­op Allan, I saw the poten­tial, I saw a man of God behind the drunk­ard­ness and I knew he would be a great man, a nation shak­er and his­to­ry mak­er,” said Ev Wair­imu.
• In death, thou­sands met to hon­our the man from across Kenya, Africa, and the world dur­ing his bur­ial ser­vice in Thindigua, Kiambu Coun­ty. The Bish­op also inspired the fight against alco­hol and drugs not­ing his con­ver­sion from drunk­en­ness was high­ly talked about in the ser­vice.

Many lead­ers across dif­fer­ent sec­tors have come out in sup­port of the Boy Child Reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gram under the Office of the Deputy Pres­i­dent (ODP). The pro­gram has result­ed to the spouse of the DP, Pas­tor Dor­cas Rigathi gain­ing the brand name ‘Mama Mboyz’ for iden­ti­fy­ing with boys and men who are down trod­den and lost in alco­hol and drugs.

On Wednes­day, the renowned tel­e­van­ge­list, Tere­sia Wair­imu spoke high­ly of the Boy Child pro­gram dur­ing the bur­ial ser­vice of Bish­op Allan Kiu­na where she detailed on the con­ver­sion of the Bish­op from a life of drunk­ard­ness to an alco­hol-free life, and becom­ing a min­is­ter in the church.

“I met my son (Allan) in a cru­sade at the age of 19. The boy was so drunk; thank you Pas­tor Dor­cas for the good job you are doing. The boy was so drunk, and some­times we judge peo­ple by the out­side appear­ance. But when I met Bish­op Allan, I saw the poten­tial, I saw a man of God behind the drunk­ard­ness and I knew he would be a great man, a nation shak­er and his­to­ry mak­er,” said Ev Wair­imu.

In death, thou­sands met to hon­our the man from across Kenya, Africa, and the world dur­ing his bur­ial ser­vice in Thindigua, Kiambu Coun­ty. The Bish­op also inspired the fight against alco­hol and drugs not­ing his con­ver­sion from drunk­en­ness was high­ly talked about in the ser­vice.

The Deputy Pres­i­dent, Rigathi Gach­agua, who was also present dur­ing the bur­ial ser­vice spoke at length about con­ti­nu­ity in the fight against addic­tions in the coun­try, say­ing the whole coun­try was affect­ed, and most espe­cial­ly the Mount Kenya Region.

“I want to salute the courage of Magua, for stand­ing here and say­ing he was an alco­holic, but because his broth­er is gone, he wants to hon­our him by quit­ting alco­hol. That is courage. The begin­ning of deal­ing with a prob­lem is accept­ing there is one. Once you acknowl­edge there is one, 50 per cent of that prob­lem is sort­ed,” said the DP.

The DP asked lead­ers to accept that the coun­try was faced with the prob­lem of alco­hol and drug abuse, which was affect­ing most espe­cial­ly the youth and the eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of the nation.

“I want to tell all lead­ers, let us not hide from real­i­ty, let us not bury our heads in the sand. Let us accept that we have chal­lenges as a nation. The chal­lenges of illic­it alco­hol and drugs in this nation is real. And many peo­ple want to run away from real­i­ty. As a coun­try, we must face head on, the chal­lenges before us.”

“When we came into lead­er­ship, we found a very big prob­lem of illic­it alco­hol and drugs in our coun­try, and most specif­i­cal­ly, in a big way in the Mount Kenya region. And we have been deal­ing with this prob­lem where you would find our men in trench­es, and when you called for work, you would only get women; we were los­ing an entire gen­er­a­tion.

This war must con­tin­ue unin­ter­rupt­ed so we may save our chil­dren. We can­not allow the rein­tro­duc­tion of poi­son, dis­guised as alco­hol to come and kill our chil­dren. As gov­ern­ment, we want to tell the mer­chants of death, those who thrive on mak­ing prof­its by man­u­fac­tur­ing, dis­till­ing, dis­trib­ut­ing, and sell­ing poi­son dis­guised as alco­hol, your days are num­bered,” said Gach­agua.

He also called on reli­gious organ­i­sa­tions to par­tic­i­pate in the fight against alco­hol and drugs.

“I ask the church of Christ, and oth­er reli­gious organ­i­sa­tions to join gov­ern­ment, and togeth­er, we try and save our chil­dren. Let reli­gious organ­i­sa­tions play a cen­tral role in men­tor­ship, coun­selling, and help­ing in reha­bil­i­ta­tion of those who are already addict­ed so we can save the next gen­er­a­tion for the eco­nom­ic growth and devel­op­ment of our nation,” said the DP

Pas­tor Dor­cas has for months urged the cler­gy, from across faiths, Chris­tians, Mus­lims, and Hin­dus to open their places of wor­ship for the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of thou­sands in the nation who are lost in alco­hol, drug, and sub­stance abuse.

Pas­tor Dor­cas has not­ed that the elab­o­rate net­work of reli­gious organ­i­sa­tions, well har­nessed would result to the trans­for­ma­tion of thou­sands of lives through reha­bil­i­ta­tion, men­tor­ship and coach­ing.

The Boy Child pro­gram has already result­ed to the reha­bil­i­ta­tion of thou­sands of men through inpa­tient and out­pa­tient com­mu­ni­ty-based reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­grams across the nation in col­lab­o­ra­tion with will­ing part­ners and reli­gious organ­i­sa­tions who heed­ed to the call.

The pro­gram encour­ages an end-to-end reha­bil­i­ta­tion pro­gram that includes reha­bil­i­ta­tion, skilling and reskilling, and con­nect­ing to jobs, busi­ness and entre­pre­neur­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties.

Pas­tor Dor­cas has made a com­mit­ment to con­tin­ue with the pro­grams despite the cut­ting off of funds for her office.

Last Sat­ur­day, Pas­tor Dor­cas attend­ed the wed­ding of John Mwan­gi and Mary Njeri in Limu­ru, Kiambu Coun­ty.

Mr Mwan­gi lost his twin broth­er to alco­holism, and that night they had been drink­ing togeth­er, but since the bur­ial he made a deci­sion to change his life, and was assist­ed through com­mu­ni­ty-based reha­bil­i­ta­tion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a local church and reformed.

The wed­ding was an inspi­ra­tion to many that they could also win against alco­hol addic­tion.

Dur­ing the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny, those who attend­ed, includ­ing Naca­da offi­cials, cler­gy and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, spoke high­ly of the Boy Child pro­gram and the change it had brought in the soci­ety.

In April 2024, Pas­tor Dor­cas also attend­ed the first wed­ding between Simon Kihara and Fidelis Njeri in Githun­guri, Kiambu Coun­ty. The cou­ple had reformed from alco­hol and drug abuse.