“Something in me clicked,” she told FMT, recalling the moment when she heard that her parents had died and her young sister was left in the care of her grandmother, who is too old to work.

“I realised I needed to get out of this rut to help them.”

She found the support she needed at one of Komited Malaysia’s shelters in Pahang.

Komited Malaysia is an NGO dedicated to rehabilitating drug users and giving them a new lease of life. It was established in 1998 and has five shelters and two drop-in centres in Pahang. The staff members are former addicts.

Anja is a transgender. She started using drugs at 19 for recreation. She said her family did not approve of her gender identification and alienated her when she started using drugs.

This led to her living on the streets for almost six years.

“To finance my habit, I resorted to becoming a sex worker,” she said.

She would occasionally hang around Komited Malaysia’s drop-in centres, which open from 8am to 5pm, and allow homeless addicts to eat, shower and rest before braving a long night out on the streets.

Anja described each day of her detox as gruelling but said she would remind herself that she was doing this for herself and her family.

“I tackled each day as it came. Now, I’ve been sober for five years.”

She said she would not have been able to reconnect with her family and reintegrate into society without the mental and physical support she received from Komited Malaysia

Anja currently works as a housekeeper at a hotel but goes back often to help out at Komited Malaysia.

“I can pay for most things myself and provide for my grandma and my sister,” she said.

Another former addict, Sairabanu, of Penang, also kicked the habit in Pahang.

“I left my family because I was embarrassed by the habit I picked up as a teenager and didn’t speak to them for 30 years after I left,” she said.

However, after committing herself to one of Komited Malaysia’s shelters, she reached out to her family and was welcomed back.

“I am so grateful to have come out of this,” she said. “I am 10 years sober now.”

Sairabanu told FMT she did not intend to return to Penang as she had found a home in Kuantan among other recovering addicts and wanted to do her part to help others.

While Anja and Sairabanu have regained control of themselves, others like Abang Rizal have not been so lucky.

“I’ve been an addict for 40 years and have been in and out of the shelter,” he said. “I am trying but it is tough.”

He said he kept returning to the shelter because the workers there understood him as they had gone through the ordeal themselves.

“I will keep trying for the sake of my children,” he said. “I want to be clean so that I can see them again.”

Komited Malaysia is currently receiving support from Yayasan Sime Darby to continue their efforts to rehabilitate drug users.