With a big heart for children, Judy Strickland started Hope House in Lakeside after identifying a need in the community for affordable counselling. Today, with a staff of 65 people, they offer counselling, courses, workshops, support groups, as well as training and outpatient rehabilitation programmes. This is her story.

“I’ve always been passionate about kids and helping them. Through fostering I’ve always been involved with kids, and Hope House gives me the opportunity to continue making a difference. We deal with counselling on all levels, from addiction to abuse, depression, violence and bullying. The stories are scary. A boy under 12 years committed suicide because he was bullied at school. When we can help kids right from the beginning, they can get their lives back. They don’t choose to be born into abuse.

The age when kids start experimenting is between 9 to 12 years. They often start with dagga, and then move on to tik, and unfortunately heroin has become very popular. Teenagers have a mind-set of: “It won’t happen to me” and our role is to teach them life skills to say no. It’s not easy, because the kids often feel insecure due to a lack of role models and they end up with gangs where gang members use them to be runners of their drug deals.

We once had a tik user in our programme that had been kicked out of his family home, because they were at their wit’s end. He completed our programme and today he has a job and a bursary for studying counselling to become a counsellor. It’s seeing lives change that makes it all worthwhile. Or when I receive little notes of thanks from the kids or their families, it makes my day.”

If you have a problem or know of someone that needs help, call the City of Cape Town 24-hour drug helpline on 0800 4357 48. For more stories, follow the #ihaveadrugproblem hashtag.

Let’s kick Cape Town’s drug problem, together.

This initiative was made possible by the City of Cape Town, Making Progress Possible. Together.