More help for vulnerable youth, families affected by incarceration

3 new project groups part of efforts by Malay/ Muslim Organisations rehab network

- Caelyn Tan

When she was 11 in 2004, she wondered why her parents loved drugs more than her. Five years later, she joined her family in taking drugs so she could fit in.

She later ended up in rehabilitation and was released in 2014, when she was 21. By then, she had two children.

In that time, non-profit organisation New Life Stories had taken up her case to help her stay away from drugs.

Recounting the girl's experience, its executive director Saleemah Ismail said it was a heartbreaking case that she remembers to this day.

She said: "The girl had asked, 'Why do my parents love drugs more than me?' But after she became a parent to two kids, she also took drugs in front of them."

The woman, now 31, had gone back to drugs and was incarcerated from 2017 to 2020.

"It was only when we took her kids to visit her behind bars that she decided to change and kick drugs," said Ms Saleemah, noting that the former addict has been clean for six years.

New Life Stories is among three new project groups, which are part of the Malay/Muslim Organisations (MMO) rehabilitation network's efforts to help vulnerable families and youth affected by incarceration.