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Blue
Cross, Thaba Bosiu under the Spot-light. |
Set under the beautiful
mountain of Thaba Bosiu, the Blue Cross rehabilitation centre for
people effected by drugs and alcohol provides a peaceful and
spiritually uplifting centre for sufferers to come to reflect and
understand their addictions. But underlying this, is a serious
problem in Lesotho, that in one way or another will impact upon most
people. We are all aware of the misery that alcoholism and drug
addiction can bring to a family, including debt, violence and crime,
so the value of the work achieved through Blue Cross, goes far
beyond the rehabilitation of individuals.
The centre was set up in 1991 by the Norwegian Government and the
Norwegian Charity, Blue Cross, an international temperance movement
and is now run as a local branch of Blue Cross, providing services
to Southern African countries, with it largest patient population
coming from Lesotho. The centre has twenty-two paid staff and has a
large volunteer network set up throughout Lesotho. The centre has
been so successful that the government of Lesotho, through the
Ministry of Health are now part financing the initiative.
So where do the problems start with drugs and alcohol? I asked
Matseliso Pheko, the Head of the Department of Treatment at Thaba
Bosiu how alcohol was considered in Lesotho. She said ‘ In Lesotho
if you drink you are recognized to be ‘elite’ and capable of
socializing and of being very popular. If you don’t drink you are
behind the times’. She told me that about 75% of alcohol in Lesotho
is not from commercial beers but from local home brewers, so alcohol
is available in almost every village in Lesotho, it is a profitable
local business.
A seventeen year old, young man, nicknamed Bo-Bo, undergoing
treatment at the centre told me that he has been drinking since he
was fourteen years old. Bo-Bo said “ I was fourteen when I first
started drinking and smoking with my friends. I wanted to explore
what it was like to be high on ‘matekoane’ (marijuana) and drink. I
tried alcohol first and I brought it from the local off-licence. I
told them I was sent to buy alcohol for an adult or I would pay
someone older to buy alcohol for me. I started going to bars and no
one asked me about my age, they were only concerned about making
money and not my age.”
The staff at Thaba Bosiu also told me that most people turn to drink
when they have problems that they find difficult to face up to. If
there is an alcoholic parent in the family this heavily influences
their children, who often end up with the same addictions as their
parents. Indeed if a mother is an alcoholic even breast milk can
transfer alcohol into their infants.
Thaba Bosiu centre acts as one of the few avenues of help for people
suffering with addictions related to drugs and alcohol. They operate
two main programmes: The Treatment Programme and the Prevention
Programme.
The Treatment Programme
The Treatment Programme works with individuals who have bravely
taken the first steps to recovery from their addictions. For an
individual the referral process begins through a number of avenues.
This can happen through referrals from individuals referring
themselves, doctors, hospitals and often from enlightened employers
concerned with their employees behaviours. However, the biggest
influence on people entering the treatment programmes is through
family member encouragement. The average treatment programme lasts
for three months intensive treatment, where individuals stay at the
alcohol, drug and smoking free centre and receive a programme of
treatment tailored to the individuals needs. Treatments within the
programme range from learning to understand the effects of drugs and
alcohol, stress management skills, assertiveness training,
relaxation, aerobics, meditation and social training. The social
training is aimed at showing people how they can socialize without
alcohol or drugs. There is also an occupational therapy element to
the programmes. This includes teaching crafts, gardening and poultry
management. As a Christian based organization the centre also has
devotion every morning.
After receiving intensive therapy the individuals have two years of
support from the centre in their communities. Indeed, their network
of volunteers in the communities also assist individuals to maintain
their sobriety through counselling and support.
The treatment programme also supports family members, this helps
minimize the rates of relapse of individuals and helps the families
understand and gain support when living with someone suffering from
drug and alcohol related problems.
Me Matseliso Pheko, the Head of the Treatment Department, when asked
about the programmes successes states, “A large number of people
have maintained their sobriety and gone on to achieve promotion at
work and have been reunited with their family after help at the
centre. I see that as our biggest success”. Me Pheko also said that
the centre provides training for student nurses and social workers.
The reputation of the centre has spread far and wide. People from
Ghana, Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius and South Africa have all
visited the centre to learn about their.
Prevention Programme
The second programme is the Prevention Programme. This programme
acts as a support system to clients upon leaving the centre. They
prepare local communities to support individuals and also do
awareness raising on the effects of drugs, alcohol and smoking. If
they meet people with addiction problems they tell them about their
services and can provide motivational counselling. They can also
help people devise entrepreneurial schemes, including poultry
projects, to assist in alleviating the problems that some users are
experiencing related to making a living and debt alleviation. This
scheme was also started to divert brewers from their previous work.
Client Experiences
We cannot name the individuals receiving treatment, but I met a
forty-seven year old woman to ask whether she feels the programme
has had a good impact on her. She told me that she first came to the
centre in 2003 but relapsed recently and so decided to re-admit
herself. She felt that although she relapsed into drinking, that
after her first visit to the centre she had decreased her level of
drinking and she had experienced some benefits from understanding
how her life improved when not drinking. I asked her whether she had
found the treatment programme useful, she said “Very useful, the
counselling sessions are very good, they help! For some of us we
drink because we have problems that we cannot relate to other
people, here the service is private. For some of us our
relationships at home have broken down and the counsellors work with
people at home and settle problems’. “ We attend classes and learn a
lot about alcohol and drugs and we realise why we drink, they teach
us about how a dysfunctional family can effect someone later in
life, we also have morning prayers that help us. I try to picture
myself sober and that there is someone through prayer who can make
me happy’.
“When I stop drinking I become lighter and gain weight and become
healthier. Drinking was my way to stop thinking about problems that
I felt I could not tackle on my own. The programme helps me tackle
the issues. As long as you are honest, Blue Cross try to help you”.
Bo-Bo, the young man mentioned above said about the service “ I was
able to talk freely about drugs and alcohol and there is no stigma
here. Young people need to know drugs and alcohol are dangerous –
there will be no hope for you if you are expelled from school and
end up on the streets. Without education there is no life for you”.
“If you need help try Thabe Bosiu centre, now I am a different
person. Thaba Bosiu have all the resources to help people.”
And the Future
Me Dineo Mokotjo, Head of Prevention at Thaba Bosiu said’ we wish to
expand our services to have other centres in the country. This is
our dream. We want to become more self sufficient and have our own
funds to run the centre and improve our structures for clients’.
There appears no doubt that the work of the centre is extremely
valuable, helping individuals and their families put their lives
back together in times of trouble. But perhaps as individuals we all
have a role to play in alcohol and drug reduction and prevention,
particularly in relation to the role we play in influencing young
people to limit their use of these dangerous substances. We often
forget that it is our behaviour that has a long term effect on
future generations. And I can say it no better than the young man I
interviewed said ‘ The staff should keep up their work, they are
marvellous’.
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