IT IS POSSIBLE TO QUIT DRINKING ALCOHOL: A SUCCESS STORY OF JOHN DUWA

IT IS POSSIBLE TO QUIT DRINKING ALCOHOL: A SUCCESS STORY OF JOHN DUWA

A Report compiled by Patrick W. Phiri and Brown Masingati

July 8, 2024

Born on third March, 1994, John Kenneth Duwa was raised in Liti Village in the Traditional Authority Nkagula, in Zomba District in Malawi. He is the sixth born in a family of nine. Currently John is married with two kids with the oldest child being seven years old. School wise, John did not only attend his primary school education at Namwini Primary School but also at Sakata Primary School in Machinga and Zomba Districts respectively. Although he managed to get into Standard Eight, John did not sit for his Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC) as he abandoned school after the death of his father.

Despite being a staunch Muslim, John started drinking alcohol in 2009. He is a classic example of negative peer influence. According to John, the reason he started drinking alcohol was to affirm his friend’s assertions that drinking alcohol removes stress and anxiety and gives one a “high feeling”. John wanted to be fearless and shameless among girls and his friends and also to feel special. John revealed that, “All my friends were alcohol drinkers, including my brother in-law who I was staying with after the passing on of my father”. He would not spend a day without drinking. If John was broke he could make sure that he would grab something and sell it just to ensure that he had some cash for the alcohol.

Being dropped from school consequently worsened John’s drinking habit as he had ample time to engage in the drinking spree. “I could sleep over at the drinking spot and all I could think of was alcohol” lamented John.

John was not just drinking any type of alcohol, but he was drinking locally brewed spirit known as “kachasu” which is more hazardous and toxic to health according to the Malawian Health Authorities. John soon became a thorn in the flesh to all his relatives as he was channeling all his monies, time and energy on alcohol drinking and he couldn’t do anything developmental.

The Power of words

In May, 2024 the United Voices for Global Impact-Malawian Team led by Brown Masingati conducted a zoom call meeting with some of the youth from Traditional Authority Nkagula in Zomba in Malawi in order to discuss on youth and substance abuse situation in Malawi. In the zoom call meeting the youths were privileged to have Dr. Hala Ghoson, the President and CEO of United Voices For Global Impact (UVGI). John was among the people who attended the meeting and he vividly recalls what Dr. Hala told the participants. Dr Hala told the audience that “everyone was born special and it doesn’t take someone to drink alcohol to be special”. This statement enlighted John and got stuck in his head. After the meeting, John went home and the whole week Dr. Hala’s statement was just lingering in his head until thoughts of quitting drinking alcohol started to settled in his mind.

“All my friends don’t believe that I quitted drinking”

His decision to stop drinking alcohol did not just come on a silver platter. John narrated that one day we went to drink alcohol with his peers at Jali Trading Centre, some twenty kilometers from his house. There he got so drunk to the extent that he lost consciousness. This was due to the fact that he was drinking on an empty stomach. “I almost died and up to now I don’t know how I got home”. His friend told him that when he collapsed and became unconscious, he was carried all the way to his house by his friends. When he regained consciousness, he suddenly developed severe headache he had never experienced before. So, when he recalled this incidence, how he suffered and almost died and related it to Dr. Hala’s statement, John made up his mind that he will never ever drink alcohol again. Now it’s almost four months without drinking. “All my friends don’t believe that I quitted drinking.” John is very determined that he can no longer go back to drinking again. “Now I have regained my health, I no longer look older than my age, there is good financial management over my monies, I’m responsible, respectable and I am being trusted by my relatives and the community leaders”.

John is now an advocate in his community in the fight against alcohol drinking. So far, he has influenced his friend Ishamel and his two nieces to quit drinking alcohol. “Let me appreciate in a special the United Voices For Global Impact for its advocacy and support. It is indeed possible to quit drinking alcohol and I am a living example”.