katha @ shafa

In Succession to “Kudoos” (Pondicherry) 30  students of High School from “Katha” a NGO working in the field of Education and Community Development Since 1988, visited Shafa on 23^rd December.

                The student have already been working towards spreading Awareness about Addiction in their Community.

                The Director along with his team including staff, volunteers and residents brought new ideas to explain the treatment through interactive sessions, Plays and Response Groups. All expectations were done by seeing things from their end and giving them day to day examples which fit in their lifestyle and environment.

                In return the students of `Katha` had also prepared stories, poems and slogans for the occasion, which were performed in front of Shafa Family. The Students shared that from the visit they learned to present themselves with confidence and to be bold.

Moving Ahead with determination.

On 21^st December the theatre work shop took a new turn. Raj chose and gave the resident`s a new posture to sit. He heard the ideas and writings of the residents. He chose a few lines from the writings of one of the resident`s and asked them to perform on it. Meri Kalpana, Meri Soch, Mera Atit, Kya Hai Khas? (My Vision, My Thoughts, My Past, What is so special about it).

                As the resident`s could not impress him. Raj formed two groups of 5 and 4 resident`s. The group of 4 sang the lines and repeated it. The group of 5 acted on a formation on these lines. The team of resident`s were full of energy in the end. Raj left with a promise to teach them a new spot walking style on his next visit.

Wanna know about a special birthday?

Shafa pays importance to all religious, observes and celebrate all religious activities, national, international days and recovery b’days. Not only this, yesterday on 14-12-11 Riya, daughter of one of the residents of Shafa to celebrate her b’day. This made the day surprisingly different for all, the residents seemed charged up. They had arranged for a cake, made a b’day card and decorated the place themselves. The best part was that the father to participate in all the activities, but did not know that all these preparations are made for his own kid.

                                                                                      Finally, when the family arrived he was shocked \amazed to see them. All residents sang songs, give her b’day wishes, and the father presented her with a gift. After the cake cutting ceremony. The father shared “he was really surprised to see them, felt relaxed and satisfied, was really happy “

                               

 The residents were nostalgic on the moment as they talked about their families and kids. They said they realised now they were never a part of any of their family celebrations inspite of being physically present there in the past. The residents too enjoyed the cake.            

LOW “SELF ESTEEM “..........A BLOCK TO RECOVERY.

Shafa has always believed in providing innovative option in treatment. On 14-12-11, Shafa invited Mr. Neil Paul, a de-addiction and anger management professional. He introduced himself as a Certified Peer Counsellor and Certified Substance Abuse Practitioner from U.S.A.  Neil surprised everyone by also introducing himself as a recovery addict with more than 16 yrs recovery. Recovery addicts from outside were also invited to benefit from this workshop.Todays topic was about “Self Esteem” and an interactive session was held for all residents, volunteers, staff and previous recovery addicts with the help of a power- point presentation.

Initially, he emphasised on the importance of “Self Esteem” in relation to addiction and the life of an addict. The biggest cost that an addict pays during addiction is his “self esteem”. The feeling of being a loser gives rise to more addiction, more addiction leads to lessened self-worth and in turn because of lessened self worth he consumes more and more. This is how an addict falls into the web of addiction, an unending cycle, where it becomes difficult from him to come out.

                       Neil at length went to explain the whole process of self esteem, reason for low and high self esteem and how to improve low self esteem. The session was more interactive and participatory and hence was liked by all. Finally residents had questions and Mr. Neil cleared their doubts too. In the end Neil promised to hold more sessions on issues related to addiction and an addict

Theatre, as a treatment modality

In continuation to Shafa’s endeavour of using theatre as  Shafa’s treatment modality, Mr.Raj Banerjee, a theatre critic and media person visited Shafa on 8^th December.

He formed  a group of 15 residents based on their interest/participation, out of which he chose Siddharth  as Asst. Director based on his past 5yrs experience with production in films, Goverdhan  as light and music incharge based on his mass communication background and Vaibhav as set incharge. Raj gave the residents a task to write at least one page a day till his next visit. This would help him to gauge how expressive the residents are and how they can articulate their feelings.

Again on 10^th Dec, Raj visited Shafa and analysed  what the individuals had written. He instructed the residents to form a story line on their writings as he did not want any of his ideology or stories to be   forced on them. He again formed 3 groups 1^st to write a screen play/story line, 2^nd for music and lyrics, 3^rd  for individual writing............................ ( This will continue, so keep a watch, we will keep you updated)

KUDOOS ...........FOR SHAFA

BUDDING SOCIAL WORKERS FROM PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY VISITED SHAFA FOR AN INTRODUCTION- CUM-SENSITIZATION PROGRAMME.

THE DAY STARTED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY VOLUNTEERS ABOUT SHAFA, HOW THEIR DAY WOULD PROCEED AND THEY ALSO SET FEW RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR THE DAY.

THEN A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION ABOUT SHAFA, “THERAPEUTIC COMMUNITY” AS A TREATMENT MODALITY AND THE COMPLETE TREATMENT PROCEDURE WAS EXPLAINED TO THE PARTICIAPNTS. MANY DOUBTS ABOUT AN ADDICT, ADDICITON AND TREATMENT THEREOF, FOR THE PARTICIPANTS WAS CLEARED. FEW ICE BREAKING GAMES WERE ALSO PLAYED TO GET THE GROUP INVOLVED.

AFTER A MODEST LUNCH, A ONE TO ONE INTERVIEW SESSION WAS ARRANGED IN BETWEEN RESIDENTS UNDERGOING TREATMENT AND THE VISITORS. THE GOAL WAS “KNOWING AN ADDICT”. A DEMONSTRATION OF VARIOUS TC-MODALITIES WAS ORGANISED. AN IMMEDIATE RESULT OF THE SAME WAS SEEN AMONGST THE VISITORS. THEY ALSO TOOK PULL UPS ON VARIOUS ISSUES LIKE (A) VISITORS NOT WASHING THEIR HAND BEFORE HAVING FOOD AND (B) VISITORS NOT FOLLOWING -UP ON THE WASH BASIN. SURPRISINGLY VISITORS ALSO EXPRESSED THEIR ANGER ON EACH OTHER IN AN “ENCOUNTER GROUP”.

THE FINAL PRESENTATION WAS A 15-MIN MOVIE TITLED “ITS ALL ABOUT CHANGE”. LATER A QUESTION ANSWER ROUND WAS ORGANISED FOR THE VISITORS TOO TO GUAGE WHAT THEY HAD UNDERSTOOD DURING THE DAY AND TO CLEAR THEIR FINAL DOUBTS.

DURING THE FEEDBACK SESSION ALL THE PARTICIPANTS SPOKE VERY HIGHLY ABOUT HOW SHAFA WAS FUNCTIONING, THE TREATMENT BEING PROVIDED AND THE AMOUNT OF PASSION AND DEDICATION WHICH THEY NOTICED AMONG THE STAFF AND RESIDENTS TOO.

ONE OF THE FACULTIES ALSO MENTIONED THAT HE HAS BEEN VISITING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY WITH VARIOUS STUDENTS TO DIFFERENT GOVERNMENTAL & NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS, AS A PART OF STUDY TOURS FOR THE LAST 7 YEARS. AND HE SAID THAT HE SHOULD ADMIT THAT OUT OF ALL THE PLACES HE HAS VISITED IN PAST 7 YEARS, SHAFA IS THE BEST. KUDOOOS.

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT US, PL VISIT OUR WEBSITE www.shafahome.org OR FOLLOW US ON BLOG www.shafahome.blogspot.com AND ON FACEBOOK shafahome@gmail.com

‘ACT AS IF’

‘Act as If’ is a very powerful concept used at SHAFA as a part of its treatment modality. ‘Magical If’ is also a powerful tool which we are told is used in performing theatre. And both mean the same. We were really surprised to know it.

Also, our previous experiences have shown that performing theatre is very effective as a part of treatment for drug and alcohol dependency. Residents who were associated with performing theatre previously, learnt life skill to emote, express and articulate their feelings better than other residents. This helped them to continue in their recovery from drugs/alcohol.

We at SHAFA are again planning to conduct a theatre work shop for the residents. The final culmination is to stage the show in any auditorium in Delhi. With this view in mind, residents from SHAFA have been regularly visiting various theatres in Delhi to sensitize them towards this performing art.