Heal their pains

Founder and school supervisor of Hong Kong Christian Zheng Sheng College, the only private school for young drug abusers, Jacob Lam Hay-sing, who has been working with drug abusers since 1980s, said most young drug abusers were also traffickers for they needed income to support their own drug use.

“Drug abuse or drug trafficking or whatever crime a youngster commits, it is just a symptom telling us that they need help. There are something wrong with their lives or their hearts. The reasons can be poor parenting, dysfunctional families or other personal problems that drive them to hook up to drug or commit drug-related offences,” Mr Lam said.

The Christian faith-based school with 130 students provides formal education to young drug abusers so that they can sit for public examination and some of their students managed to secure good grades that give them places in universities.

“Education is about remodeling the mindset and attitude towards life of a person and guides these troubled teens back to the right track.hem No mainstream secondary school will be willing to admit them, so we must provide them another chance to study again. Most drug rehabilitation centers only provide vocational training programs and lessons that cannot help students return to mainstream school system,” Mr Lam said.

“Giving a status and a title of student back to a young drug abuser or drug trafficker, regardless of their age, is important. With the student identity, troubled teens can engage themselves in studies and even inter-school activities which most young drug abusers or traffickers have never experienced when at school for they are mostly school failures or drop-outs,” he said.

Michael Lim, Director of pastoral care and outreach department of Teen Challenge (Singapore), a Christian group which runs a rehabilitation centre for drug abusers, gambling addicts and alcoholic at Old Choa Chu Kang Road agreed.

“Most young drug abusers turn to drug due to bad parenting and family problems,” Mr Lim said adding that the centre provides character building and training programs to build up their clients’ incentives to lead a better life and develop good habit in daily life.

The centre now houses former offenders who have drug addiction, alcoholic and gambling problems as well. The clients are aged between 18 and 65 attending a one-year residential program at the site.

“I consider our service quite successful, though it takes many years to work on some difficult cases. I think it is important to give them a chance and help them lead a better life,” Mr Lim said.