Saying no – Active Citizens in Muzzafargarh and their battle against drug addiction

“People who are drug addicts are most vulnerable in our society and deserve our care, love, and attention”

Says Taimoor Khalid – a young Active Citizen from Muzzafargarh. Taimoor along with four other group members is working with members of his community to help people struggling with drug addiction.

An idea takes root

Drug abuse has always been part of the day-to-day life in Taimoor’s neighbourhood. There is only one public park where Taimoor lives, and as far back as he can remember it has always been home to drug addicts. The drugs of choice: Heroin and Hashish.

According to Taimoor, on a given day it is normal to see 50 to 60 addicts in the park, abusing drugs in public. Over the years this has had the effect of desensitizing people to this damaging practice.

This is why when these five young people were asked to propose a Social Action Project in the final phase of their training, they chose to start an awareness campaign against drug abuse and to work together to help addicts recover from their addiction and to ease their path back into society as valued and contributing members.

Indifference

Perhaps the biggest challenge for the group was convincing families of addicts that drug addiction is a disease and people who abuse drugs require medical attention to recover from it and proper rehabilitation so that they do not relapse.

In most cases the group members found family members of drug addicts indifferent to the possibility of successful treatment of the addiction. According to Taimoor most parents argued that as long as their child was not causing any trouble they did not care. Medical facts and religious reasoning were used by the group to convince them otherwise.

In all the youth group met close to 45 people. Gradually the affected community members began trusting the young people and showed interest in their project.

The group members also spoke to addicts personally and tried to convince them to kick the habit. After a lot of visits 8 drug addicts expressed their desire to sober up.

Support

Besides visiting families of addicts the youth group also visited the local public school, Government Degree College. According to Taimoor, illegal drugs use by high school students is rampant.

The young people discussed their project with the principal of the school who expressed enthusiasm and promised his full support. And so began the second leg of the awareness campaign: high school students of Muzzafargarh. The awareness sessions also included documentary videos which highlighted the perils of drug abuse.

The group also convinced the school administration to declare the entire school a no smoking zone. The principal of the school and some staff members promised to contribute a portion of their monthly pay check to the group to pay for medication and other expenses.

Recovery

Finally, with 8 people committed to kick their habit the group approached several doctors and medical staff. They managed to convince a few of them to volunteer their time and expertise in detoxification and rehabilitation.

To pay for the medication the group made use of the money collected from the teaching staff of Government Degree College. To raise additional funds they embarked on a scrap collection drive through the entire district. When people found out why they were collecting scrap they happily donated unneeded possessions.

By selling scrap to local junkyards the group was able to raise enough money to meet their expenses and purchase the needed medication.

Round 2

After the treatment of the eight patients ended the group members made a point of visiting them daily to support them through the period of rehabilitation. They have also convinced the recovering addicts to accompany them on their tours to the high school and to participate in their awareness sessions.

Taimoor and his friends now plan to follow the same sustainable model to help other members of the community who suffer from drug addiction.

It takes two – Active Citizens open up new avenues in Multan

As young people growing up in Suraj Miani – a neighbourhood of Multan – Abdul Rahman and Shumaila Bibi always felt the absence of IT training institutes in the area. The nearest computer training institute is 7 – 8 kilometres away and the nearest internet café is 3 kilometres away.

Perhaps the absence of a technology institute is felt more acutely by young girls and women of the area. Multan being a conservative city, relatively more avenues for personal growth are open to men than women. This includes opportunities for higher education and professional courses. After graduating high school most women face added restrictions by their families, and unnecessarily venturing out of homes is frowned upon.

At the Active Citizens training that they attended Abdul Rahman and Shumaila proposed a facility where the residents of Suraj Miani – especially women could benefit from technology education and brush up their language skills.

 A local NGO offered them space in their offices to hold the classes, and the youth group managed to arrange 4 computers for the classes – including their personal lap top computers. Now came the hard part: convincing parents of young girls to let them attend the free computer and English classes.

Abdul Rahman and Shumaila arranged two separate meetings: one at the Union Council head quarters for the male members of the community, and one for women and young girls at the residence of a community member. Besides these community meetings the young Active Citizens also took part in a door-to-door awareness campaign to recruit students for the coaching centre.

When asked about the problems faced by the youth group, Abdul Rahman responded that: “the biggest hurdle faced by us was convincing parents of young girls to let them attend the classes. The area we live in is very conservative and women stepping out of their houses are frowned upon”.

Ultimately 90 women and 25 men signed up for the computer classes. As a bonus the young women were also offered and English language course taught by Shumaila while Abdul Rahman along with another volunteer teaches the computer classes. The students are tested after the course is completed and successful candidates are awarded a certificate by the youth group. The ages of the students range from 14 years to 23 years and classes are held four days a week.

Besides acquiring technical skills the training also gives the students the confidence to pursue more challenging opportunities. A clear indication of this is the fact that 3 girls after successfully attending the computer course managed to get jobs in private schools where they teach Microsoft Word and Excel to young female students. This has also inspired other women to sign up for the classes.

Banking on education

Sometimes the simplest ideas if put into practice properly can be extremely effective. An example of this is the Social Action Project being implemented by Kiran Kumari: a book bank; a simple but effective concept.

Being a school teacher in Sindh, Kiran knows well the hurdles faced by economically disadvantaged individuals – especially when it comes to educating their children. So it was only logical that when Kiran completed her Active Citizens training she would start a Social Action Project to make the education process less costly for parents who struggle to make ends meet.

Kiran asked her students to donate school books to her so that other, less fortunate children may use them. She also reached out to friends, relatives, and other teachers in the area for any reusable books that they could spare. With the help of her students she got rid of any erasable markings from the books and covered the books with clean scrap paper to protect them.

A large section of Kiran’s class consists of children whose parents don’t have a steady source of income. To make ends meet they work odd jobs – mostly as manual labourers. Kiran made a list of students who came from such homes.

As the donated books started coming in Kiran let the more deserving children know that they could use the books from her book bank free of cost. Her two conditions: that they take care of the books as if they were their own, and that they return them to her at the end of the term.   

Kiran first ‘tested’ her social action project in April, and nearly 60 students were able to make use of the books provided by Kiran. According to Kiran parents who rely on daily wages to get by this was an added bonus.

When asked about her plans for the project, Kiran replies: “I have decided to do this activity every year collect books from last batch and provide to next batch. Through this more than 100 students can get benefit from my book bank”.