The next time you check in to rehab they might ask you if you have a Facebook account…

Mr Marlon Parker, an IT lecturer at South Africa’s Cape Peninsula University of Technology, has started a drug counselling service using the cell phone chat service known as Mxit and the Facebook social networking application. “The main objective was to meet the youth on a platform that they are comfortable with as a first point of contact, where they can express themselves and receive counselling or advice on the issue of drug and substance abuse”, Parker states.

The project was born following an increase in gang and drug activity on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape Province, which was causing tension within communities. According to Parker, these activities have a negative impact on citizens in these communities and contribute to a sense of helplessness. Reconstruction or rehabilitation of ex-drug addicts and ex-gangsters are challenging due to communities with tension not being able to empower these citizens or not willing to be rehabilitated. This presented the opportunity for the use of technology as part of the reconstructing of these citizens. Parker found himself starting this project after his elder brother, now serving a prison term, became a drug addict and pusher.

Via Business Daily Africa

About the Author: Jonathan Gosier (Founder) is an American-born software developer, writer and social entrepreneur. He currently lives in Kampala, Uganda where he is working on two fronts: to encourage western businesses and investors to engage African entrepreneurs and to encourage the adoption of computers, programming and use of the internet in the developing regions of Africa. He is a huge advocate for promoting the ways in which a semantic web will benefit emerging economies in the world.

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