Rehabilitating hope
WHITNEY GARDENS – DRUG rehabilitation experts from Wedge Gardens Treatment Centre reached out to Johannesburg’s ‘invisible’ community with the message that substance abuse can be beaten.
Laetitia Goosen and Adél Grobbelaar of the Rand Aid Association rehabilitation centre’s management team joined a team from the Outreach Foundation on the streets of Hillbrow on 13 November. Working side by side with the faith-based organisation which provides support and development in the inner city, Goosen and Grobbelaar helped serve a warming meal and educated their audience about in-patient rehabilitation.
“We tried to bring them a message of hope for the future,” said Grobbelaar, who has dedicated three decades to assisting alcoholics and drug addicts reintegrate into society.
The Outreach Foundation regularly visits drug hotspots in the Johannesburg CBD, focusing on Hillbrow with its high concentration of social issues including HIV/Aids, women abuse, refugee influx, urban degradation, drug dealing, prostitution and crime. Working at Wedge Gardens, Goosen and Grobbelaar have heard their share of tragic abuse stories, and witnessed lives ruined by drugs, but this campaign was an ‘eye-opener’.
“Being out on the darkest of Johannesburg’s streets was a reality check of note. We saw first-hand the cruel face of addiction today. The one certainty in addiction is, if you do not stop, a similar future will be your destiny… Looking at this makes you realise that Johannesburg has lost the war on drugs,” said Grobbelaar.
Particularly shocking for Goosen, who has worked in the field of substance abuse for 15 years, was the number of children encountered.
“It seems as if parents lose hope because these youngsters turn to crime to support their drug habits. In the end, parents can no longer control them and do not allow them home,” she said.
According to Grobbelaar, she and Goosen find the Outreach Foundation’s work heartening because before admission to the foundation’s programme, participants need to see counsellors on a daily basis to prove their determination to commit to rehabilitation. The programme also strives to reunite recovering addicts with their families, preventing their return to the streets.
Details: Wedge Gardens Treatment Centre 011 430 0320; Facebook Wedge Gardens Treatment Centre; Twitter: @WedgeGardens
