Rehabilitated street dwellers vow to stay clean

The 17 vowed to remain “clean” and “change around their lives.”

The men were rescued by Transform Life Ministries following their removal from the streets. It was during that period they underwent the first steps of becoming rehabilitated. They were yesterday transferred to the Piparo Empowerment Centre following an initiative of the Inter Agency Unit and the Ministry of the People and Social Development.

The former street dwellers will now begin Phase Two of the rehabilitation programme, which was officially launched yesterday at the Piparo Empowerment Centre.

Former street dweller Shane Parson, 55, revealed that “I have been drunk for 35 years.” He said he became powerless over his addiction and grew miserable until he eventually left his family and ended up living on the streets.

“Sometimes I used to just want to go in the shop for no reason, just to have an excuse to buy rum. I became addicted,” he said.

Parson, who was introduced to alcohol at the age of 16 years, said “nobody did not throw anything down my throat. I just tried it and I liked it. I started on rum and ended up on bay rum.”

His addiction resulted in his wife divorcing the father of three, and he drank more to ease his frustration. “My wife did done (sic) divorce me, my children was big, they had they own house, so I say rum can’t give me AIDS, rum can’t leave me. But my life was miserable,” he said.

However, with the support of family members, the people at Transform Life Ministries and by the grace of God, Parson said “I know I will make it. I have been alcohol free for 107 days.”

Dexter Cole, another former street dweller, advised people not to even try marijuana. He said he started smoking marijuana to get “a connection”, but it instead led him to a mental breakdown. His five years of marriage also came to an abrupt end. “Marijuana made me loose my wife, she could not take the smoking,” Cole said. He said staying away from drugs now has allowed him to explore some of his talents, such as paper art, which he was passionate about while attending school.

Former street dweller and now councillor at the Piparo Rehabilitation Centre, Kenneth Evelyn, 69, told reporters he served prison time for drugs, but it was there he took the challenge to rehabilitate himself.

He said at the centre they teach that “the same energy they are using to get the drugs they can divert that energy in a positive manner.”

People and Social Development Minister Dr Glenn Ramadharsingh, who delivered the feature address at the ceremony, said the 17 former street dwellers must undergo three phases to be fully rehabilitated.

The minister said the initiative was an attempt to effectively deal with the problem of the desolate, the socially vulnerable and socially displaced in TT. “Substance abuse among the socially displaced population is a worldwide occurrence. In fact, recent international research suggests that approximately 20-35 percent of socially displaced persons are substance users and as many as ten-20 percent are dually diagnosed with an additional mental health disorder of some kind,” Ramadharsingh said. He added there was a lot of structural and interpersonal barriers to accessing substance abuse treatment which are exacerbated by the realities of homelessness. “The socially displaced who are victim to the problems associated with substance abuse are susceptible to becoming homeless more frequently and often stay homeless longer than other homeless persons,” the minister said.