-penned by a social worker, Mr.Prakash
- Alcoholism remains a huge problem in the families and communities we support at Sharana. For a few months, Sharana has been conducting awareness sessions on drugs and alcoholism in collaboration with OUTREACH & DROP-IN CENTRE (ODIC), Puducherry.
- In this collaboration, a fourth awareness session for women beneficiaries of Sharana was conducted on the afternoon of the 10th of December 2020 in Sharana’s Social Centre. About 20 women from the various programs of Sharana participated in the session.
Before starting the session the team from ODIC had a meeting with Sharana’s Programme Director Mrs. Jagriti Shankar and discussed the objectives of the session and exchanged ideas about a survey of the same in the communities to understand more deeply about the various aspects of drug and alcohol abuse.
- The awareness session began with an introduction by the Social worker Prakash. Following this, Ms. Vincy introduced the various programs offered by ODIC for the residents of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
- Then, senior Counsellor, Mr Panner Selvam explained about alcoholism, stages of alcohol consumption, symptoms of alcoholism, various effects of alcoholism, the impact of alcoholism on the person and family, etc., whether it is curable, how to deal with alcoholic patients, etc. He demonstrated all issues with stories and examples.
- He also interacted with women and asked about their experiences with alcoholic husbands & relatives. It was a chance for women to share their personal experiences living with alcoholic husbands and get advice on how to support their husbands to break this habit and give up alcohol consumption.
There were also some emotional moments when one woman broke down and cried while sharing how she had lost her husband to alcohol. She said she doesn’t want the same thing to happen to anybody else.
Finally, Mr. Arun Praveen explained the method of treatment given by the center and the procedure for admission.
More updates of this collaboration will continue to be posted on our website in the coming months.
OUTREACH & DROP-IN CENTRE (ODIC) is funded by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MSJE), and the National Institute of Social Defense (NISD). They provide end-to-end services ranging from awareness creation of alcohol addiction, referral, and in-house de-addiction services, as well as a 2 year follow up of the same. They are also involved in awareness vis-à-vis youth involved in drug abuse.
