Sweet Friend

DECEMBER 2007 — Down a narrow, noisy, winding street in Dhaka is a store-front building with a colorful sign. Inside, the counselors and managers of the nonprofit society for Community Health Rehabilitation, Education and Awareness (CREA) do something that no one else in Bangladesh will do, with HIV/AIDS technical support from the Family Health International (FHI) office in Dhaka.

CREA provides a 90-day residential detoxification and rehabilitation service at no charge to street-dwelling, needle-sharing, injecting drug users who, on their own, never could afford such treatment.

To give the cleaned-up drug users a better chance to stay drug free after treatment, the program, called Modhumita — Bengali for "sweet friend" — has linked up with Jobs Opportunity and Business Support (JOBS), an organization originally funded by USAID to develop business and expand employment in Bangladesh.

JOBS helps those who have gone through the 90-day program to find work, decreasing the number who relapse after treatment. Two employers, APEX Leather Craft and Bengal Braided Rugs Ltd., are working with JOBS on this project.

"What we're finding," said FHI Country Director Robert Kelly, "is that several of the graduates who are here, they've been on drugs for 20 years — now they're working."

USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health Kent Hill recently toured the facility, which houses 35 men and 12 women in separate dormitories. He met with managers and talked with program clients who gathered in a large room for the occasion.

USAID has many programs to help people who are addicted to drugs, he told them through a translator. "I have great sympathy with your situation. I'm impressed that you are willing to do the very hard work of being in a treatment program, because there's great hope if you do."

PHOTO: USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health Kent Hill Kent Hill talks with graduates of a USAID-funded AIDS prevention program in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Robert Kelly, FHI/Bangladesh)

ILLUSTRATION (below): Artwork provided by FHI/Bangladesh used on marketing materials from the Modhumita program

Adapted from USINFO article by Cheryl Pellerin.