Date:March 3, 2019, 11:02 am
CADAM: Adeboyes’ war against drug addictionBy Mod - 30 minutes ago - [ Update ]
…Drugs end all dreams, D.E.A.D.
By Sam Eyoboka
YESTERDAY in Araga-Epe, a suburb of Epe located on the north side of the Lekki Lagoon in Lagos State, a horde of men, women, boys and girls at the Christ Against Drug Abuse Mini-stry (CADAM) Rehabili-tation Centre were presen-ted with a unique opport-unity to celebrate the 77th birthday anniversary of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Past-or Enoch Adejare Adeboye who had given them hope in life.
Pastor Adeboye
CADAM, a faith-based non-governmental organizat-ion was founded by a mem-ber of the Governing Coun-cil of the Redeemed Christ-ian Church of God, Pastor Ezekiel A. Odeyemi in June 1991 to cater for the treat-ment and rehabilitation of adult (between the ages of 18 and 60 years and abo-ve) male and female drug addicts. The institution has a cordial working relation-ship with both local and international agencies in-volved in similar endeav-ours, such as the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nation-al Neuro-Psychiatric Hosp-ital, Yaba, National Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Aro-Abeokuta, other commu-nity-based NGOs and the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime Control (UNODC).
 Drug Abuse: No new registration for alcohol in sachets — NAFDAC DG
The permanent site of CADAM, in the forest of Araga-Epe (originally meant for a camp) was recently commissioned by the Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode. The home engages the clergy, church members, profess-ionals and recovered add-icts to provide care and services to its target groups (individuals, families, and communities). Its motto is: Setting The Captives Free derived from Isaiah 61:1.
Extolling the virtue of the lead-ership of RCCG at the commi-ssioning ceremony, especially in their war against the menace of drug addiction, Ambode pledged that the Lagos State government would support the initiative to achieve the desired aims.
“CADAM has, on its own, with it own resources, picked up, fed, sheltered, treated and rehabili-tated many people who have been addicted to drugs, and given them a new life,†Ambode said, pro-mising to fix the road leading to the home to start with.
Earlier, Pastor Adeboye, repres-ented by his wife, Folu, said that the home was established as a department in the RCCG to visit rehabilitation centres and hosp-itals to pray and minister to their physical needs. According to her, the scope and the name changed in 1996 to enable a wider dimen-sion as well as remove the stigma associated with drug addiction.
“Since inception, the centre has assisted over 2,000 beneficiaries from across the country, most of whom have become profession-als and eminent members of the society. Over N200 million have been spent so far to put up some facilities in the permanent site,†she said, noting that benefi-ciaries included doctors, lawyers, pilots and not lim-ited to the under privile-ged.
A recent media tour of the Araga-Epe forest home to the fast growing centre, was quite revealing as the Director-General of CADAM, Pastor Dokun Adedeji took the visitors on a guarded tour of the cen-tre, first to the Liberty Hou-se which caters for repers-onisation, Ebenezer House which caters for rehabilit-aion; and Dominion Chap-el, a multi-purpose hall which currently serves as teaching/fellowship centre. There is a building that houses the various workshops for the various skill acquisition program-mes of the centre. The skills taught here include: Barb-ing, Leather works, Comp-uter laboratory, School of fashion, Photography Stu-dio, with editing, Home Economics, Laundering and Chemical production and several others without fee.
The about 200 male bene-ficiaries are anxiously wai-ting for the mini sports complex which is about 70 per cent completed.
“It was in 1996 when we started residential progra-mme at somewhere not too far away from here known as Gboka. We began work there until 2000 when Daddy G.O. gave us this 5-hectare land originally meant to serve as a camp. We started with just two blocks of flats for the train-ing of our beneficiaries.
“Our one year programme is split into two phases—the first phase is for treatment and the second for Rehabi-litation made up of secular and spiritual. The benefic-iaries have classes where they do things by themsel-ves. They were even cook-ing their meals until Mu-mmy G.O. visited in 2016 and she decided to upgrade the place,†Pastor Adedeji narrated.
Instead of the two blocks of yesteryears, CADAM now has two male domitories, several training works-hops, an administrative hall, (under construction) as well as a teaching hall which also serves as a din-ing hall. Before the upgra-de, the beneficiaries were shuttling between the Epe home and another facility in Akute near Ogun State.
Be that as it may, the home seating on a five hectare of land, still lacks facilities to accommodate the female folk who are currently hou-sed in a rented apartment in nearly Gboka from whe-re they come to the centre every morning for their daily classes.
According to Pastor Adede-ji, a Godly natured wom-an, Mrs. Mojisola Balogun has graciously donated a completely developed hou-se in Abeokuta, Ogun State for the use of the centre.
“As soon as God helps us with the paper works we will then develop the wom-en section.
“We have the compliment of staff, professionals, acad-emics, social workers, psy-chologists, clinical psycho-logists, chaplain and people who take care of the bene-ficiaries and teach them,†the director-general expl-ained.
In addition to the profess-ionals on its pay roll, CADAM also invites facili-tators from outside to take the beneficiaries in various vocations in the centre. The beneficiaries, irresp-ective of their age, wake up at a particular time for ind-ividual devotion and ther-eafter participate in a coll-ective devotion and its the same routine before they retire to bed at night.
“Very soon our Admin block and the sport arena will be ready where the over 200 beneficiaries can play lawn tennis, basketball, foot-ball,†he continued, adding that a public spirited indiv-idual has volunteered to develop the sports complex for the centre.
The DG maintained that the maximum number of persons CADAM can cater for is 200, adding that in the women wing they ha-ve space for just 13 but by March when new entries will be admitted, the num-ber may increase to 20.
According to the DG, adm-ission process is done in their administrative sect-ion at Agidingbi in Lagos which includes counseling. “When people come, we off-er counseling, we offer reh-abilitation services and ad-vocacy.
Asked to explain the pro-cedure for admission, he maintained that benefic-iaries very often come to the office by themselves. “We also get some when we do evangelism in the joints while others come from people that have graduat-ed from here. Some univer-sities send their students to us for rehabilitation.
“We have formal and infor-mal relationship with 13 private Christian universi-ties across the nation and they send their people to us for rehab. We were begin-ning to see from our own review that many of the students should not be sent here.
“Some can be sent to differ-ent centers because the mi-stake everybody makes is to think that when some-body tests positive for drug, he is an addict: he could just be a social user. People shouldn’t think everybo-dy who uses drugs is an ad-dict.
According to the DG, an addict is somebody who cannot do without a whole dose or who lives in a joint away from home.
“Drug addiction or subst-ance addiction is a public health issue that people must see; it’s like somebody has hypertension. It can be treated and put on drugs or help unless they have psy-chiatric illness. We don’t take anybody who has psy-chiatric illness because we are not psychiatrists,†Pastor Adedeji counselled.
*Watch out for a list of harmful drugs.
Source:
www.vanguardngr.com/2019/03/cadam-adeboyes-war-against-drug-addiction/
