Sen. Cynthia Villar and her staff present the drug surrenderers who “graduated” from their 12-week rehabilitation and training program. PHOTO FROM THE SIPAG VILLAR FACEBOOK PAGE
A hundred drug surrenderers have graduated from a 12-week training program where they learned farm skills and basic life support among others.
The drug surrenderers, who had earlier turned themselves in to the police, graduated from the Villar Sipag (Social Institute for Poverty Alleviation and Governance) farm school in Las Piñas City.
Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate committee on Agriculture, was optimistic the former drug dependents could now live a normal life after their graduation.
“As drug (surrenderers) transition from addiction to recovery, we are hoping this training program that will help them move forward to a productive life and not go back to their addictive ways,” Villar said in a statement on Saturday.
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Villar said the drug surrenderers, who were part of the Community-based Drug Rehabilitation Training Program, came from different barangays (villages) in Las Piñas.
During the training program, the drug surrenderers were taught techniques on urban agriculture, which would provide them alternative livelihood to ensure food security within their families.
The graduation of the drug surrenderers coincided with the Harvest festival wherein they reaped the vegetables they planted during the program.
Personnel from the Las Piñas General Hospital also provided lectures on the prevention of diseases and promotion of healthy lifestyle among the drug surrenderers and their families.
The participants were also exposed to discussions on values formation, spiritual healing and restoration led by the faith-based organization Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life (CFC-FFL).
Coastal clean-up activities were also held to teach the drug surrenderers the importance of environment conservation and protection. IDL