BAHA MACHACHARI SPEAKS DAYS AFTER BEING EXPOSED BY NURSE JUDY

Hello, my name is Sylvia, Sylvia Raiway. I'm a clinical psychologist. So when the Jonica Foundation and Pacamea got in touch with me to see Roberts, they wanted him to go through assessments, at least to see if there's an issue that maybe he's dealing with. And that is what we've been doing so far. I wanted to explain something. You said that betting is a problem. I want to explain the fact that there are three kinds of gamblers. Let me use the word gamblers. So there is a professional one who's very okay in terms of what they do. They know what resources they can put into gambling or they know how to do it and they know how to time themselves. And then there is a social gambler who does it for fun, where most Kenyans are. And then now we have the problem gambler who now is an addicted gambler. That's where now the problem comes in. So what happens in this case, I'm just trying to say, not everyone who does betting has a problem, but if you do have an addiction whereby you cannot control the amount of money you're putting in your bets, or if you do have an issue in managing the time you spend in betting and all that, then you need to seek help. And that's what Robert is doing right now. And most of the people who have gambling addiction have underlying issues as well. Underlying psychopathology sometimes, maybe there's depression, maybe there is bipolar, cause it's an impulse control disorder. So if there is anyone that you know out there who's having a problem with like him, he needs, he or she needs to be seen by a doctor maybe at some point and to get help that they need. And I'm very happy that I was included in this as I help him recover through what he needs to recover through and to be more responsible in the future. Yes. Thank you. My name is John Kamau. The founder of Jonica Foundation. It's an organization I founded after one of my friends succumbed into gaming. Actually he committed suicide. And that's when I got a drive to start the foundation. What we've been doing, we have a website and a toll free number. We've been receiving numerous calls. Actually it's very overwhelming, the number of calls we are receiving with people who have problem gaming. And I call the key players in the industry and everyone else, including government agencies to help in curbing this problem. It's becoming quite a big problem. And the issue is most of the people who are facing the issue, problem gaming, are not speaking out. Baha is one in thousands and I hope those who have this issue can come out and we hope that the key players in the industry will help in this drive as we try and make sure that gaming is taken as leisure and not as a way of making investments. So thank you for supporting this initiative and we hope other key players will come in and ourselves will do all we can to make sure that we regulate the issue of problem gaming. Thanks. Okay, so the first thing about maybe any addiction, let me just generalize, because it's just not gambling. The best thing is if you see someone struggling is to help them get to where they can get help. So in this case, for example, Jonica Foundation takes calls and they connect you with people like us now who are going to help you through the addiction process to help you recover. Because just like any other addiction, it has to be treated. And mostly it's through therapy and if there's an underlying psychopathology, then there is a psychiatrist who can see you and give you treatment as you go through maybe cognitive behavioral therapy or any other sort of therapy that you need to go through. So the first thing is, how do we get this person to get help? Maybe calling in, assisting them to the hospital, that would be the first step. And then from there, they can connect you with me. I'm from Integrative Holistic Psychotherapy. They call me in and maybe we help you from there and we move forward in terms of you getting better. And yes, there is a bit of denial with gambling and also that can be a process actually. So you need to be able to also communicate with the person who's gambling very effectively. To add on what she said, I know you hadn't asked me the question but I just want to say something. Just like I've said, I know betting is a disease. I know a lot of young people out there are suffering. Young people just like myself. There are certain reasons that push you to do it, maybe when it becomes now problematic. And most of the people, how to realize, I know it's not as bad as it looks, but you don't realize when things like, when push comes to shove. So if you have someone who's willing to like, you know, come out on your behalf and stuff, that's really, really, really helpful. Yeah. Yes. Ah, so right now we've had one session. The session was actually mainly to understand some underlying issues that might have caused my, you know, my addiction in gambling. So that is what we worked on. We realized a lot about my past, a lot about things that were going on in my childhood that maybe I hadn't worked on. So now it's just unraveling the story, poly-poly. And then Doc also is giving me a few like, things that I can do when I feel the urge to, you know, to gamble. I can call her anytime. Yeah, so I feel like it's baby steps and we're going to get there. Wow, funny thing, I didn't. That's the, like, that's the, that's the weird point. You don't realize yourself. Maybe in the other way, when you think you may realize in a game, if a point in any too far gone. So for me, I hadn't realized, but I'm glad whatever happened, happened, it pushed me to towards doing things that I wasn't really, really proud of. And yeah, so now I'm here and I'm working on myself. Oh, it's been a pleasure guys. Thank you. See you soon when I'm better. We heard about Baha's story in the social media, just like everyone else. And we decided to reach out to the foundation company that supports responsible gaming. And through that, we'll be able to support him to see a doctor. Of course, that will take some time. As Pakamea, we are happy to help him go through the gambling problem and we'll support him all through until he comes out of it. We're also calling out to other betting companies in the industry to support such a cause, knowing very well that we have so many people in the country who are struggling with the gambling addiction. And as an industry, we've not been very supportive to these people, yet we're required by the government that we contribute some money from our earnings towards supporting responsible gaming. Hello everyone. I know all of you have seen what's going on around on social media. And one thing I want to say is, betting is a disease. Most people don't look at it that way. I got it. And I'm so glad that I have so many guys who are willing to help me out. I just wanna say thank you to Jonica Foundation and Pakamea, because they're gonna help me through this. And then hopefully afterwards I can give my story and I can become like a brand ambassador for responsible betting guys. So yeah, I just wanna say thank you and I hope all goes well. Yeah, some friends are here, some left, so I'm working with what I have. We are products of our decisions, good or bad. Thank you. All right.