Patrick Hinga’s story touched the Kenyans. He used to be a “lost” man, homeless and drug-addicted, until his former classmate, Wanja Mwaura, found him, transformed him and turned his life around.
Patrick had endured serious problems with his addiction for years, starting with expulsion from his school for smoking cigarettes and marijuana. That started a downward spiral, with his mother at her wit's end trying to help him and eventually taking him to a mental hospital to curb his habit. He became known at the hospital, as he ran away and was re-admitted several times.
As Patrick’s mother, Nancy, told SD:
“He complained a lot and said all they did was give him medication and treat him like a mental patient and yet he was not mentally ill, and that is why he kept running away. But when he was out of the hospital, he would walk around the neighborhood completely naked, or he would rummage through garbage.”
While he was at the mental hospital, Patrick’s drug habit aggravated, as he discovered a drug called Attain. As Nancy said: “It isn’t supposed to be used daily, but because it got him high, he got addicted. It was only Sh2 (a few cents) per tablet. He even stole prescription papers and got them from chemists.”
As Patrick showed no signs of recovery, he finally decided to run away once and for all and started to roam the streets of Nairobi, disheveled and out of control, getting his drugs wherever he could. His mother was still trying to help him by bringing him food. “We were always a spectacle; people would call each other to come and stare, laugh and point at us as we ate. I was known as Mama wa wazimu” (the madman’s mother).
Finally, one day on the streets, in the little corner he had claimed for himself, Patrick met an old schoolmate Wanja. She started to talk to Patrick, who expressed his desire to get off the streets and begin a new life. Wanja promptly checked Patrick into a rehab center and found support and donations for his treatment through social media. She could also give Patrick something to focus on after he recovered, helping him start his business, a shop called ‘Hinga’s Store’.
Patrick’s transformation, after detoxing from drugs at the rehab centre and cleaning himself up, is incredible. He's grateful for the second chance that Wanja has helped him find. As he told Daily Nation: “I feel like I am a new man. I pray daily, asking God to deliver me so that I am not pulled back to that life of drugs.”
Reference: Bored Panda
now that's a friend.
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