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Mr. Naji Mansour of Oum Zel Nour.
Mr. Nadi Sfeir of Oum El Nour.
A large and deeply concerned audience.
than a year. Jihad became completely alienated from his family, even stealing his
mother’s jewellery to finance his addiction. His one obsession was how to secure
enough heroine for the next day or even the next hour, even though like most
addicts he still believed himself strong enough to kick the habit if he wanted to.
Jihad began to realise that he was addicted when he suffered actual physical
pain during the withdrawal period when the drug effects began to wear off.
However, he has now been clean for nearly seven years and is the happily-married
father of two. He vows to always keep a close relationship with his children
as he feels that this was what was lacking in his own family. Now he appreciates
life, whereas before his addiction he had been conscious only of a void.
This testimony was followed by statistics given by Mr. Nadi Sfeir of the Oum el
Nour Rehabilitation Center. He said that although addiction in Lebanon was not
yet as high as it was in many western countries, it was increasing at an explosive
rate. In the year 2001 almost ten times as many had been received for treatment
at the Centre as in 1993. The most popular drug was heroine, closely followed by
amphetamines, but most cases received were taking a cocktail of drugs. Before
the floor was thrown open to questions, representatives of the Connection Club
explained that its members were not affiliated to any official Intelligence Service
and did not report cases of addiction to the authorities. They were there in their
office near the SAO only to help those in trouble. Their formal training had come
from Oum el Nour. The vital step was for an addict to realise that he had a problem
and make a conscious decision to seek help. N
A bouquet for Mr. Jihad!
24 NNU SPIRIT