Listen to this article
Salvation Army in Guyana hosts annual event for ex-addicts.
The Salvation Army Drug Rehabilitation Center, Guyana, hosted its second annual event for recovering addicts in Kingston on Oct. 31.
Captain Matignol Saint-Lot, Drug Rehabilitation Center administrator, said the get-together allows the men an opportunity to share histories, successes, and life changes they have experienced by being clean and sober.
At present there are about 20 recovering drug addicts at the Kingston facility and 10 in halfway houses.
Along with psychological counseling, spiritual teaching plays a major role in the success of the addicts.
“For six months we give them counseling and spiritual sessions,” counselor John Greaves said. “When a person goes through the pains of addiction and knows what it is to sleep on the pavement and go hungry to feed his addiction, he is the easiest person to deal with because his pain drives him here, ready for treatment.”
Men who were eating out of garbage cans and sleeping on the streets have entered the program and experienced success.
One of the staff counselors is a recovering addict who has been clean for 12 years. An office worker completed his treatment earlier this year.
“We can show the addicts that these guys were in the gutters and are here to show what they went through and how they chose not to go back there,” Greaves said.
The program also addresses the issue of relapse due to lack of support, care and love from their families, peers and society as a whole. The staff works hard to convey that relapse is a part of treatment and serves a purpose: to help them realize they need to work harder and stay focused.
From Kaieteur News Online