In 2014, BILL KAHIRIMBANYI BEKUNDA, 41, started a campaign on social media against underage drinking.
As a former addict, Bekunda is using his Facebook page Stop Underage Drinking Uganda (SUDU), as a catalyst for behavioural change in schools and institutions of higher learning as Yudaya Nangonzi writes.
When Bekunda completed primary school, his parents thought a boarding school would better keep their son occupied with studies. All they wanted was the best school. He was taken to St Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK) in 1991, a Catholic Church-founded school. For any student who went to this school, discipline was supposed to be the order of the day.
“I was a very good boy, by the way. In first term, I was third in class,” Bekunda recalls. “[But] the madness came while in senior two and my performance declined. The first day to drink alcohol was the happiest day in my life. I was a very reserved person but I started becoming stubborn, doing all sorts of things.”
DRINK AGAIN
Every Monday, the first thought on his mind was a weekend so that he could escape with his friends to go and drink again. According to Bekunda, SMACK then had no perimeter wall, which made it easier for students to move to the nearest local bars.
“Whenever one didn’t have money, you would just exchange your sugar or other stuff for sachets of waragi at the bar,” says this proud married father of three, who are also pushing the campaign at their schools.
To some extent, his parents were aware of what he was doing in school but could not help. He would drink openly while at home, argue them out, and defy whatever they said because all he cared about was drinking.
When he got to senior four, he was allowed to sit his exams despite his transgressions, but ordered not to return to the school for senior five. And his S4 results speak for themselves. “It was so bad and I don’t think I want to share it here. I regret it!” he says.
When you meet Bekunda today, he says he is a changed man and has vowed never to touch booze for the rest of his life. This resolution finally came to fruition in 2014.
Since then, he has held anti-underage drinking campaigns in schools such as Bishop Cipriano Kihangire SS in Luzira, Loving Hearts Helping Hands PS in Kabale district and Makerere University, among others. While the government puts the underage at 18, Bekunda says his campaign target all people below 25 years.
EDUCATIVE CAMPAIGN
Collins Mbulakyalo, a senior-five student at Bishop Cipriano Kihangire, who attended one of Bekunda’s sensitisation campaigns last term, described it as ‘very educative.’
Mbulakyalo told The Observer that he was surprised that Bekunda disclosed to the school gathering that he started drinking at the age of 14, under peer influence and was soon taking all types of alcohol.
“His story was very touching. I got to know how people struggle to recover from the addiction. Most students thought it was easy to drink and feel nice and get out of it easily,” Mbulakyalo says. He adds that parents that have children in the same condition should help them fight the urge instead of abandoning them.
Although Bekunda did all sorts of things to the extent of his father giving up on him, his mother was always by his side. When Bekunda joined the university, she sent him to his uncles in Ukraine and Germany, but the addiction worsened because of the free lifestyle that he was exposed to.
Even when he returned to Uganda, she paid his alcohol debts in bars around Bukoto where he stayed, before finally paying for him to join Serenity rehabilitation centre then in Nsambya.
To Bekunda, alcohol is worse than drugs like cocaine and heroin, thus the need to spread the campaign so fast among the underage. Grace Driciru Atibuni, the deputy head teacher in charge of Administration at Bishop Cipriano Kihangire SS, says the way Bekunda packaged his life story impacted well on the students.
“It was a very good talk to the students. It is not easy to tell students that underage drinking is not good when they live in communities of people who booze,” Atibuni says. “But if you are using a real-life story, it creates more impact.”
She requested Bekunda to make the talks more frequent, at least thrice in a term. Atibuni also called for clustering of students according to their age brackets, pictures and videos during the campaign talks.
Atibuni adds that, as a result of the talk, the school has not caught any students with alcohol and drugs since 2012, when three S3 students were expelled after they were found with waragi in mineral water bottles in 2012. The school policy does not allow a student any chance of negotiations once they are found drunk.
BE ALERT
Bekunda urges parents and teachers to step up efforts on sensitising their children about the dangers of underage drinking and thorough check-ups for those in boarding schools.
“In our days, they used not to check much and you would easily smuggle alcohol or drugs in the school. This should not continue, by emphasizing routine checks in schools,” he says.
According to Bekunda, some students today soak bread in alcohol; dry and repackage it, dilute quencher with waragi, make big holes in bread and pile sachets inside.
“Of late, I have learnt that children get oranges and inject them with alcohol so that they are not caught easily. For girls, they are using tampons and the alcohol goes straight to the blood streams. Boys do the same but through their behind,” he explains, adding that it is everyone’s role to fight underage drinking.
Bekunda appealed to the education ministry to include issues of substance abuse in the various curricula as he looks forward to officially launch the campaign in three-month’s time.
BISHOP CIPRIANO KIHANGIRE STUDENTS SPEAK
Rebecca Akony, S3 (18)
I advise my fellow teenagers not to accept anyone to influence them in taking alcohol and drugs because it can ruin our studies.
Collins Mbulakyalo, S5 (16)
If you are drinking, just know you are not the cool guy. Fellow students do the right things with the right people and those who do otherwise will pick from there.
Moses Makmot, S3 (15)
The underage drinking campaign is so helpful for school children. I know among us there are students who were taking alcohol but since they talked to us, I am sure it must have touched their lives. We should learn not do things because other people are doing them.
Justina Nandutu, S5 (17)
I have tasted alcohol once and never did it again. I realised that if you continue testing all the time, you will drink alcohol forever. In school, you will find children with different characters but avoid peer influence and know what took you school.
Jackline Nakiseru, S5 (18)
Taking alcohol is not good at all. It will be so nice if the campaign talk is organised again at school.
nangonzi@observer.ug