Salum Fadhili lives in Buguruni, Dar es Salaam, with his wife and three children in an extended family’s house. Initially, Salum smoked cannabis. He started injecting drugs in 1998. In the picture below, he is showing scars from the injections. He stated that he used to be a thief to get money for drugs. As a result, I was isolated from my family and society. The group that SEET formed for people who use drugs was very helpful for me. I remember the discussions we had as group members, on how difficult and challenging it was to stop injecting drugs while being completely isolated. Despite all the difficulties, my two friends and I managed to stop injecting drugs. After stopping drug use, Salum learned driving by using his old friend’s vehicle. He now can drive but has no driving license since he was unofficially trained. In the future, he would like to take an official driving course, and get a driving certificate and license.

Abdallah Shaaban is 20 years, lives in Vingunguti, Dar es Salaam. He lost both parents to HIV/AIDS when aged 9. He and his sister were then cared for by their grandmother. SEET started supporting him in 2016. Abdallah was provided with basic education needs, including school fees, a uniform, and stationary. SEET also provided emergency food to the family. In 2021, SEET him sent for training to sew. and he qualified as tailor in the same year. Fortunately, Health Tanzania Foundation, a U.S. based non-profit organization donated a sewing machine to Abdallah. Abdalllah said, I am now self-employed and manage to cover my living costs and support my grandmother too. I will never forget what SEET has done for me.

I am Suleiman Salum Malizia, 57 years old. I live in Buguruni Mnyamani, Dar es Salaam. I am married with one child and staying in an extended family house. I started selling and injecting illegal drugs in the early 2000’s. I stopped selling drugs because of difficulties in getting them. I still, however, needed money to buy and to continue injecting drugs. So, I started collecting plastic bottles in the street and selling (recycling) them. In 2012, I started Methadone treatment to help me stop using drugs. However, I stopped Methadone treatment in the same year because of a lack of transport fare to and from the Methadone treatment center and I felt uncomfortable using the drug around others. In 2018, I joined a self-help group of people using drugs. They were established with support from SEET. We had several trainings and encouragement from SEET and community volunteers to help us stop using drugs. The process was difficult, but I slowly started reducing the amount of and frequency of drug use. Happily, I was able to stop the drugs completely in 2021. Thanks to everyone, especially my wife and SEET, for the support and encouragement they gave me during my hard period. Following giving up injecting drugs voluntarily, Suleiman is now working as shoe, bag, and umbrella repairman. He uses the work to feed his family. He also teaches and helps other recovering drug users in an established group of recovering drug users.