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Drug Free World Fiji Founder, Kalesi Volatabu is calling on church and traditional leaders to step up their efforts in the battle against illicit drug use.

Speaking on FBC TV’s “Your Voice,” Volatabu pointed out that substance abuse is prevalent among Christians and iTaukei, making the church and traditional leaders pivotal in tackling the issue.

She acknowledged existing efforts but emphasized that more decisive action is needed to address the problem effectively.

“I need to acknowledge all those different province stepping up saying you know what we want to do something about this, because the thing is at the end of the day, it is our iTaukei that really is the huge substance abusers right now for drugs, the biggest numbers for HIV and AIDS in this country, the huge number that’s in Saint Giles Hospital, the huge number that’s in custody whether it be in remand or sentence, that’s our people.”

Volatabu also states that church leaders need to address pressing community issues from the pulpit as they have the tools and influence to advocate effectively on such matters.

“Let’s train, let’s equip those who we have in place in the church, the youth ministry, the women’s ministry, the men’s ministry, the tala tala, we give you the tools so you can actually go there and administer because you know when we did the research in 2019 the majority of those were Christians, so it’s like this drug problem is here from the church as well.”

Volatabu also states that churches and traditional leaders need to be approachable and supportive figures whom people can trust and feel confident in approaching, especially when seeking help for issues like drug addiction.