PAYNESVILLE — Sixteen young women once trapped in addiction stood tall, tearfully reclaiming their dignity as they graduated Friday from the Center for Rehabilitation and Reintegration (CFRR), a privately run program founded and funded by Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon.
The ceremony, marked by raw emotion and calls for national accountability, was the center's second all-female graduation since opening in 2021 and drew lawmakers, parents, and civic leaders united by the urgency of Liberia's spiraling drug crisis.
"I believed drugs would make me famous," said Enerstine Kiandolee, one of the graduates. "But they nearly destroyed me." Her voice joined others in testimony, confronting the crowd with the brutal realities of addiction and the long road back.
Another graduate, Jonnatta Barclay, struck a somber chord: "We blame ourselves for falling prey to peer pressure and promises that cost us our futures." She urged fellow youth to reject drugs, seek purpose, and find strength in faith and family.
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A Fight Funded by Sacrifice, Not Government
Dillon, who contributes US$3,000 monthly from his Senate salary to keep CFRR afloat, used the occasion to lash out at what he called the Executive Branch's failure to implement Liberia's amended drug law. The 2022 law mandates jail without bond for high-level drug offenders, but enforcement remains inconsistent.
"Every time y'all ask what the Legislature is doing, you forget who's supposed to implement the law," Dillon said. "We're doing our part--what is the Executive doing to stop the importation of drugs?"
Since 2021, the CFRR has rehabilitated over 200 young people, according to Dillon, without partisan or religious discrimination. "We just care about people," he said. "Here, we don't ask about party or church--we just help."
Promises of Support and Expansion
Senate Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence announced a US$10,000 pledge to build a male-only rehabilitation center in Grand Bassa County and offered immediate employment to graduate Jonnatta Barclay. "Only you can decide to save yourselves," she told the women. "But we are here to support you."
She hailed Dillon's model as a blueprint for community-led rehabilitation. "This is the kind of national response Liberia needs," Karnga-Lawrence said.
Other leaders echoed her sentiment. Senator Joseph Jallah of Lofa donated $300, calling the center's work "what the Ministry of Justice should be doing." Liberty Party Secretary-General Martin Kullah pledged L$50,000 monthly and committed to regularly purchasing goods produced by the women, including baked goods and cleaning products.
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"We must go after the source--those importing drugs into Liberia," Kullah said.
A Mother's Grief, A Nation's Reckoning
The event also laid bare the deep pain families endure. Roseline Amah Giddings, mother of a drug-imprisoned son, wept openly. "I grew up in the slum. I'm a single parent. Now my only child is in prison because of drugs," she said. "The first feeling you get when you taste it lives with you forever."
She urged parents to speak out and join the national fight against addiction. "If nothing is done in the next two to three years, we won't have a better youth population."
Other parents made donations and pledged ongoing support to the center. "You saved my child," one father said, promising US$150 monthly to CFRR.
Yukhiko Amnon, administrator of Candlelight Christian Academy, encouraged the women to stay the course: "You see your before and after. Don't go back to where you came from."
Dillon's Plea: 'Don't Remind Them of Their Past'
Dillon closed the ceremony with a message to families. "Support your children. Don't shame them," he said. "They will still stumble--but be there to lift them up."
He also revealed that Grand Cape Mount County Senator Dabah Varpilah has committed to sending two addicts to the center for treatment.
