Catherine Matekera, who said she knew MAGGA through her school, Mlare where they were, for example, taught knitting, said she has actually seen people who smoke getting mad.

Through a debate at her school whose motion was whether a girl who is found in places where people smoke and drink does the same too, Catherine said her mind.

“During the debate I said it was not true that if you are found at a place where peo- ple drink and smoke then it means you do the same too because I have experienced that situation.

“My elder sister is into soap business, and a number of times I have helped her sell including at drinking joints,” said Cath- erine who is raised by a single mother.

She said it was grim struggle for survival for them since her mother does not have a stable source of income.

“She sells fresh maize or does menial jobs around to support us. Sometimes I help her out she asks me to,” said Cather- ine.

With first-hand experiences of being at drinking joints, Catherine vows never to attempt drinking alcohol or smoking.

“When you drink you can be raped. You can get an unwanted pregnancy,” she said.Because of MAGGA, she said, she is now able to know what is good or bad.

“They [MAGGA] encourage us to work hard on our education and not to con- centrate on things that will not help our posterity such as drinking or smoking,” she said.

Of how they will keep on with the MAGGA campaign on the effects of drug and substance abuse said Catherine: “We will discourage the brewing of local beer in our villages as well as that of cigarettes or hemp.”