Life in Vietnam

Former drug addicts find new life

Lê Hương

(Additional reporting by Minh Phương)

Though they are three strong men leading normal lives with happy families, few people know their dark past as chronic drug users.

The men are now utilising this valuable experience to help other drug users quit addiction.

“I started using drugs in 2010, just after I entered the university,” Trần Trung Anh told Việt Nam News. “I was afraid at first, as I knew a little bit about its harm. But my friends kept challenging me. They said: 'Are you scared?' All boys try drugs at least once. So I tried.”

Anh said his first try only brought some uneasy feelings, but after using it many more times, he became addicted. He doesn’t even know when.

“I just know that I spent all my money buying drugs with my friends,” he said.

Lê Ngọc Hiền, likewise, behaved badly in his childhood. In 7th grade, he spent nights playing with his friends and racing bikes. In 12th grade, he started taking drugs, although heroin and methamphetamine are banned by the state. When he graduated from the College of Science and Technology, he was already a heavy addict.

Hiền remembered his mother often insisting in vain: “Please give me back the child I gave birth to.”

Faith

Both men struggled to break free from drugs for years as their bodies got weaker. They tried to kick out the habit through faith, at the Nguồn Phước Protestant Rehabilitation Centre on the outskirts of Hà Nội.

ROLE MODELS: Lê Ngọc Hiền (3rd left) plays shuttlecock kicking with former drug users at a rehabilitation centre on the outskirts of Hà Nội. VNS Photo Lê Hương

“I was a nice child, but drugs changed me into a bad person,” Hiền said. “I did not care about anything, neglecting my parents and my family. Drugs were the only thing I would care for.”

“I realised finally that the liking I had pursued was opposite to what I wanted,” he said. “I wanted my family to be happy, but drug addiction destroyed my body and my life.”

In December 2019, Hiền decided to go to a rehab centre to make a new life.

Anh could not stop using drugs even though he wanted to. He was so lost in drugs that he was expelled from university in 2012. Then he came back home. To get money to buy drugs, he started to rob and steal.

Once he was arrested by the police, and called his mother and told her if his family did not help, he would be jailed.

His mother soon persuaded him to enter the rehab centre after she helped him out.

It took the men a year to get clean, and now they are both drug-free.

“All my first wishes to God were like challenges,” Anh said. “Things like: God, please bring my wife back to me. And he did. Gradually, God won my trust.”

MUSIC THERAPY: Trần Trung Anh teaches inmates at the centre. VNS Photo Minh Phương

Grateful to the centre, the two men decided to stay to help others quit the bad habit. Anh now teaches music to the inmates at the centre and hopes he can inspire them.

“Now these boys call me ‘teacher’,” he said. “I feel I don’t deserve that title. But I feel my life has more value. I’m respected and loved. I no longer depend on drugs, and I can help many people.”

Hiền now manages a rehab centre in the northern province of Bắc Ninh.

“All drug users want to change, but they don’t know where and how to start,” Hiền said. “What I have received from other brothers, now I give to others.”

He stays awake with the addicts under treatment at night, massages them, encourages them, prays with them, and utilises his belief to change them.

Hiền said he appreciated his odyssey of being additive to drugs, as without it he would not be able to understand the current addicts and help them start new lives.

“Belief in God now is like a lifebuoy for drug addicts, who have often been ignored by their family and society,” he said.

CHANGING LIVES: Lê Ngọc Hiền (3rd left) at the World Leaders Summit in Hà Nội. Photo courtesy of Lê Ngọc Hiền

Rehab centre based on trust

Phạm Đức Chung, a former centre inmate, decided to multiply the detoxification model and founded another Nguồn Phước rehab centre.

Nguồn Phước now runs 14 centres in six localities in the country, which also takes care of needy children with parents in jail.

FORMER ADDICT: Phạm Đức Chung in a meeting with his crew. Photo courtesy of Phạm Đức Chung

Drug addicts come there to lead a simple life, away from drugs and means of livelihood, practising physical exercises and learning the Christian tenets. They pray several times a day. The centres can host hundreds of drug addicts at the same time.

“We have helped rehabilitate many young addicts,” Trung said. “They return to their families and do good things.”

Among his staff are 35 volunteers, who are former drug addicts.

“That’s what brought me happiness and meaning,” he said.

Mẫn Thị Hường, Hiền’s mother, said she could never have imagined this day.

“Before, my family had only sorrow and suffering,” she said in a trembling voice. Thank God. Without him, my family would never have today.”

Hường is willing to share her family’s story with others, especially drug addicts’ families, to help people in their quest to beat addiction.

SPIRITUAL HEALING: Phạm Đức Chung (2nd right) in a visit to the Government Committee for Religious Affairs early this year. Photo courtesy of Phạm Đức Chung

Nguyễn Thị Vân Anh, wife of Anh, strongly recommends Christian institutions to drug addicts for rehabilitation.

“Such an environment is good,” she said. “People love one another very much.”

Former drug addicts like Chung, Hiền and Anh have now found new purposes in their lives – bringing hope to lost brothers like they once were.

Commenting on the rehab centre model based on Protestant values, Hoàng Bá Hai, an official from the Government Committee for Religious Affairs, said he appreciated the model.

"Using a belief to guide people to do good for society is worth encouraging. In this case, faith in God can help drug addicts to quit bad habits and live better for the community," he said. "The rehabilitation model has been recognised by the whole society. I think it sets a good example." VNS