Turn To Life Ministries (TTEL) is dedicated to fighting drugs. They are on track to achieve their goal of getting 1,2 million signatures on their drug petition, with the intention to submit it to parliament.
“Our aim is to take the signatures to parliament before the end of the year. We want our government to start taking drug abuse in South Africa seriously,” Edward van Schalkwyk from TTEL said at their drug awareness stall on Saturday (28 March).
The team has been targeting shopping centres in Randfontein, Krugersdorp and Roodepoort and has done really well thus far. When visiting their stall, the community can learn more about the different drugs on the street, the effects they have on users and ultimately the dangers of these drugs for abusers.
“We have had all kinds of people coming to us. The majority supports our campaign and signs the petition while others also leave donations for the drug rehab centre we are trying to get off the ground. There are also those who have a drug addiction problem or who have a son or daughter battling with a drug problem,” Edward explained.
When completed, the Turn To Eternal Hope Centre (TTEHC) will be a training facility for addiction survivors. The facility is approximately 26km west of Krugersdorp and 4km east of Magaliesburg on a 180ha farm. Addiction survivors will be counselled to overcome their addictions and trained in agricultural management and Biblical counselling.
This is done over an envisaged period of one year on a donation basis. Families and survivors also are counselled to reconcile and to facilitate a support structure after the completion of the programme. All survivors pay it forward by working on the farm for a period of one and a half years after completing the programme. This ensures a continued support structure to those entering the initial phases of the programme.
To achieve this, they need the support of businesses and the community to strengthen the hands full- and part-time members involved in TTEL Bible Ministries.
This can be achieved through the following:
• Sponsoring training programmes
• Donating building materials
• Donating tools and equipment for the farm
• Donating Bibles and books (for the envisaged library)
• Providing services (legal, financial, video editing)
• Donating kitchen equipment
• Donating non-perishable foods
• Donating vacuum-packed meat
• Donating vegetable seeds (for farming purposes)
A wish list can be made available on request explaining in more detail the current needs and construction phases envisaged on the farm. For more information or if you have a drug abuse problem, please call Edward on 079 127 9054.
“We would just like to thank the Greenhills Spar, Tony’s Meat Market, Camelot and Cartridge Cave for all the support, without you we wouldn’t be able to fight this drug problem in Randfontein the way we have,” Edward concluded.
