FORMER drug addict Charlotte Mdluli quit drugs for the sake of her 12-year-old daughter.
The 29-year-old from Diepkloof, Soweto said she hasn’t been there for her kid.
She said she wants to teach her daughter good values, responsibility, respect, honesty and diligence.
“I did not see a mother through the image I became due to drugs. I wanted to recover from the eight years I spent doing drugs,” said Charlotte, who used to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, dagga and later nyaope and rocks.
Charlotte said her addiction started after she gave birth to her daughter when she was 19.
“I felt pressure from being a teenage mother. Drugs were the only way to forget my problems.
“I did not know that I was destroying my life and losing my dignity,” said Charlotte.
She said her life was saved after she booked into Westview Rehabilitation Centre in Roodepoort, west of Joburg, for six weeks.
“I learnt to accept my past, forgive myself, have faith in myself, move forward with my life and also believe that change is constant,” she said.
Charlotte said she has been clean for two years and loves every moment of bonding with her daughter.
“I am not going back and I love who I have become as a mother. Life is wonderful.
“I am happy and my child is doing well at school.
“I’m also a peer educator at Tholulwazi Phakathi, a non-profit organisation that provides psycho-social support where I help young people with referrals to rehab centres.
“Rehabilitation centres are good for withdrawal and receiving medication,” said Charlotte.
She plans to go back to school next year to complete her matric. “This will help me study nursing so I can take care of the sick,” said Charlotte.
