No fewer than 30 drug and alcohol addicts have received a new lease of life, making them become responsible and productive citizens. Their transformation is courtesy of House of Refuge, a comprehensive rehabilitation home, run by This Present House, Lekki Lagos. House of Refuge, which began operations exactly in 1996, formally opened last year to the public.

The faith-based centre is fully residential and seeks to tackle the scourge of drug abuse and its attendant consequences in the society through provision of holistic resources covering medical detoxification, specialist support, professional therapy, social support, spiritual support and mentoring as well as recreational facilities aimed at frontally re­integrating former addicts to the society.

Located at the Alpha Beach way along Lagos-Epe Expressway, the centre is an offshoot of a drug-oriented outreach initiated by Pastor Tony Rapu, The Senior Pastor of This Present House, following his concern over the fallouts of drug and alcohol abuse in the society. Rapu, a medical doctor­ turned -Pastor, started the outreach from Adeniji Adele over a decade ago.

Despite spirited efforts to detach addicts from drug abuse, Rapu's team realised they were making little or no success. According to the programme manager of freedom foundation, Dr Ejinkeonye Oguguah, the team's efforts were not yielding fruits because "they were still within the reach of drug peddlers and users who soon lure them back to the practice".

Oguguah, who heads the centre, said they soon discovered they needed to provide an enabling environment for the speedy treatment and reintegration of users, a dream that became a reality with the establishment of House of Refuge.

The world-class centre boasts of recreational facilities as well as residential resources with world-class psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and medical personnel taking turn to provide support to admitted patients for accelerated recovery. The centre, Oguguah informed, has a facility for 25 people.

Though 25 reformed users appear like a fish in a kettle considering the enormity of drug abuse in Nigeria , Oguguah said emphasis is not on numbers but transformation of lives. ''We believe if we can help just 25 people we are making a huge progress". Besides, he said the manageable size makes it easier for quality rehabilitation to take place.

A proof of this, he stated, is the fact that there is expressed confidence in the ability of those who have undergone the programme to hold their own in the society without fear of relapse. ''We can confidently say that they are permanently free from drug," he inferred. Furthermore, he said they had become productive citizens, making a living through various endeavours.

This, he revealed, is because the centre offers intensive vocational training for skill acquisition. Through this, many patients who had no marketable skills have become empowered to generate wealth on their own in the increasingly competitive society. ''A number of them are now electricians, plumbers, social workers and pastors. They now make a living for themselves, thereby foreclosing the lure of drug permanently," he disclosed.

The effect, he added, has been multiplying because some of those who have emerged from the centre have become campaigners against drug abuse. Some, he hinted, now even work in rehabilitation homes, joining the crusade to keep Nigerians off the scourge of drugs.

On funding for the capital intensive centre, Oguguah stated that it has taken the generosity of Pastor Rapu, church members and friends of the ministry to keep it running, saying nothing less than N10million has been expended on the project. To cope with the heavy operational costs, he said patients are charged affordable fees for treatment.

Asked how much it will cost to go through the centre, Oguguah revealed there was no fixed fees, stressing that what a patient pays monthly depends on his condition and needs. ''When a patient comes in, we start by verifying how involved in drugs he is and what it will take to let him off the hook, which is why it will be difficult to state what exactly we'll charge but you can be sure it is something reasonably affordable," he explained.

In the next three months, the medical doctor said seven more people would have become reformed and prepared for reintegration into the big society, assuring that the centre will remain unsparing in ensuring that more and more drug users are helped to overcome the destructive addiction.