Greetings from the
Fish Hoek Drug Crisis
and Information Center!!!
We do hope you are enjoying a warm holiday season and celebrating with those that you love. During this time we are reminded of those addicts out there still struggling in their addiction. We think of the families of those addicts who spend their days wondering when their children will come home or come right. We think of our brothers in prison, separated from their families, celebrating the holidays behind bars.
Although this is a time when people look ahead to a new year, making resolutions to change certain things in their lives, we’d like to take this opportunity to let you know what 2008 looked like for us, the ups and downs of our ministry and the ways we have seen lives changed for good.
During the month of January we started a course called “Safe People”. We’ve been blessed with a loyal group of about 10 women who love our courses and attend them all year round. We also ran two “Boundaries” courses, one starting in March and the second starting in October. We see so much growth in the women who attend, as their eyes are opened to the lack of boundaries they have in their lives. We see them take small steps forward. It’s not always easy for them, but it’s amazing to watch their strength grow and their determination increase. What a fun group of ladies they are, and the ways they have encouraged and blessed our lives is immeasurable.
Another group of very loyal women is our Saturday morning “Family Crisis” group, the group we run for the families of addicts. There is a core of women who have been coming for the last 2 years, and we hope to soon be handing this group over for them to run independently. There is no greater sign of accomplishment than when we can step back and see that such groups can carry on and sustain themselves without us! It is very exciting. However, we’ve had many newcomers join us, families from as far as Athlone and even Cape Town. We have so much fun together, but we share tears and hardships as well.
Our Thursday night “New Beginnings” groups consists of addicts coming out of active addiction. A core band of people has also started forming within this group! In this group we cover many important topics, including step work, pamphlets on anger and stinking thinking, and ways to avoid relapse.
Whether we have many or few, we carry on knowing that this group is of such importance in our community. We celebrate when we reach milestones in our lives, and we look for ways to support one another. Towards the end of the year we came together as a group and watched a newcomer go off to rehab, partially sponsored by us as a group. These are examples of how change can come and step 12 (which says that we take the message of recovery to others) is fulfilled in our lives!
Another exciting endeavor we have joined forces with is Camp Africa located near the beautiful community of Scarborough, just past Red Hill. This camps hosts children from all over South Africa for two or three day hiking, camping, and adventure groups. We’ve been a regular part of these groups throughout the year, invited each time a new band of kids shows up. We come to the camp and do an hour presentation on the damaging effects of drugs, a program called “Choices and Consequences”. In some groups it seems these small children know more than we do about drugs and the effects it has on their communities, while other groups of kids are shocked to hear the slightest truth about the damage of drugs or the effects it has on the body. In both extremes we find that we serve a purpose, whether it been informing kids and warning them, or comforting those who know the information and inspiring them to be the difference in their families and communities.
Another of our priorities this past year has been networking with other local organizations working in the communities. Early in the year we were invited to join the Local Drug Action Committee of Fish Hoek where we received information on the City of Cape Town’s drug action plan for the next few years. Sadly, this group seemed to dissolve by the end of the year, something we see happen all too often. We also joined forces with OIL, attending meetings in Masiphumelele with other NGO’s, learning how we can support and network with one another. We can only hope these initiatives will carry into the new year.
Our work in the schools continued. We connected with Muizenberg High School early in the year when some of their students were caught get involved with drug using and dealing. The principal of this school is an amazing and compassionate man who loves his job and his students. It’s been a pleasure working with him. We also spend regular time in Christian-David primary school, simply serving as a presence for the children. We know their situations at home are quite difficult, with many of their parents and siblings involved in drugs. In this environment we simply encourage the children and try to equip them as best we can with information and connectedness.
In April we hosted an event we called “Valley of Decision”. We recruited local hip hop groups to come and perform on a Friday night, hoping to show kids in the area that fun can be had without using drugs or alcohol. The idea was a great one, and for our first event it was somewhat well-attended. However, we also saw how the kids in the valley are so convinced that mind-altering substances are necessary for a good time, and the chains we have to break are strong ones in this community.
Unlike the breakthrough we saw in Fish Hoek, we were greatly by an invitation we received to conduct a 3-week training at the Baptist church in the community of Ocean View!!! For years we have longed to help this community, and looked for ways to be involved. The training was awesome, and the church that hosted us seemed really eager to be the catalyst for change in their community. We hope that the new year will bring new opportunity for this to happen.
The end of the year wrapped up with some new experiences for us. We have regularly been invited to Pollsmoor prison to give short talks to inmates or to be a part of certain events in the prison. We also regularly visit one of our brothers in a prison in Malmesbury. However, we connected with a woman who helps run the Restorative Justice course we got connected to last year. We brainstormed with her about new ways to reach the guys in the cells, and came up with the idea of starting a basic support group, a place where the guys can talk and be listened to rather than being talked to and not heard. So, in November we started a 4-week support group with some of the youth in the B-5 section of Pollsmoor Prison. At first the group was slow-going, some of the boys seemed shy to talk, and we were a bit unsure of how to sustain a group where we really had no other plan than to listen. But by the end of the month, we had really developed a basic connection with certain guys and felt that our listening ears were of great encouragement to them. Some boys got carried away with telling glory stories of their rebellious days as if to impress us or show off, but we tried to bring them always back to the heart of the matter…that their lives have become unmanageable because of the grip drugs and alcohol have on them.
All in all, 2008 was an exciting year, filled with both old and new things. While 2009 will bring with it much change and newness, we hope that our vision for the city of Cape Town will be maintained…to be a voice of opposition to the loudness of drug addiction, and to be a support for those most affected by drugs. Please continue supporting us and praying for us in 2009. We really appreciate your friendships.
Until next time,
John Roberts and Ashley Dalton
Fish Hoek Drug Crisis and Information Centre
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