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Support for Alcoholics and Familiy Members |
HADA Astana, Kazakhstan
How do foreigners gain the
trust of Kazakh alcoholics?
That's quite a challenge so
we have had to recognise that it can be done more effectively by
locals who themselves have been addicted in the past, and actually
six local men want to help us in this
Our major strategy has been
to organise seminars for family members of alcoholics and produce
literature which is being distributed in our own centre, through
personal contacts and to clinics and libraries.
Activities to achieve our
goals:
- Translation of “Alcoholics
Anonymous” materials and other brochures into Kazakh.
A number are completed,
others are currently being checked and another book will be
translated soon.
- Adjusting Russian language
materials for the Kazakhstan context.
The languages are different
so to get the message clearly to the Kazakhs adjustments need to be
made.
- Printing literature in
Eastern Russian and Kazakh
Much time and effort has
gone into preparing the documents for printing (lay-out and
proof-reading) and guiding the printing process. Both the quality
and prices of the printing are good.
- Seminars for family members
of alcoholics.
These seek to help people
understand the mechanisms of alcohol abuse, the role family members
play in the alcohol abuse of their partners and parents, and to
discover new behavioural patterns that encourage the alcoholic to
take responsibility for this behaviour.
- Literature distribution and
availability
Our literature has been very
warmly
received by the city detoxification and
rehabilitation
centre.
We are trust the six
nationals who are helping us to break down resistance to foreigners
and non-addicts, to open doors for literature and cooperation with
other rehabilitation centres and thus lead to the establishment of
support groups in the near future.
Some who initiated with us
have decided not to continue, but we are now referring individual
cases to our “Six Friends” in the hope they can help them.
- Education materials for
schools
We will be developing more
materials for schools showing the effects and dangers or alcohol
abuse and addiction, but also highlighting how many students are
affected through their parents and other family members. These
materials can be
incorporated into the Valueology lessons which
are
developed as a separate project in
cooperation with the Astana
Education Department.
Joining hand to rehabilitate lives
The challenges are great,
but with Hada's cooperation lives will be changed and Hope will
become a reality!
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