With “Kent Goes Purple”, a substance abuse awareness initiative led by the Chestertown Rotary Club and Kent County Sheriff’s Office, we have been focusing on the addiction epidemic here in our community. What you may not know is that our community has taken it one step further and are also tackling addiction in a more global sense.
The Rotary Club of Chestertown partnered with Rotary of Lusaka Central (Zambia, Africa) to bring this addiction treatment training to Zambia through a Rotary International Foundation Global Grant. This initiative was also donated to by Rotary of Newark Morning, Rotary of Christiana, Rotary of Centreville, Rotary of Kent Island as well as Hope Fellowship, St. Paul’s Episcopal and Global Outreach Church (VA Beach).
Using expressive mediums of dance, music, horticulture, art, games and drama as therapeutic metaphors for healing, local nonprofit CoLaborers International has developed a group counseling curriculum for substance users. It is based on the 12 Steps, cognitive behavioral techniques and requires no literacy and is called “Literacy-Free 12 Step Expressive Arts Therapy” written by Melissa Stuebing.
While it is used locally at A.F. Whitsitt Center and other facilities, it was originally developed for children in Zambia and uses art forms found in Africa – such as call and response songs in local languages, gourd art and dance circles. CoLaborers has been assisting indigenous led organizations, like Chisomo Centers, in Zambia since 2012 who saw that substance use among children was a problem. Clinical studies of the curriculum had participants as young as 6 years old. 5 clinical studies have been done, finding it to produce statistically significant change. Special thanks to Aaron and Josephine Chilunjika for their assistance. Drug and alcohol treatment has not been historically available in Zambia, despite 25% of street children population admitting to substance use (Lemba, 2002).
David White represented the Chestertown Rotary Club and trainers in the “Literacy-Free 12 Step Expressive Arts Therapy” curriculum included CoLaborers International staff – Melissa Stuebing (author), Michael Peck, David Stuebing, Jason Stansbury, Chipo Pepe Nambeye, Allyson Grace Arnold and Hjordis Lorenz. Rotarians from Lusaka Central were also key in its success, including Onechi Lwenje (president), T Singh (treasurer), Tristan Patel and Kantilal Ranchhod.
Substance use is highly stigmatized and treatment for substance use is not yet widely available or accessible in Zambia. A Pre/Post training survey was given to determine if a two-day training in a culturally appropriate 12 Step-based curriculum could facilitate attitudinal change among 100 treatment professionals in their view of the substance user themselves and the value of offering treatment. The Institutional Review Board for this study was through Washington College. Analyzing the data after the trainings found significant changes in attitude toward offering treatment and toward motivating substance users for treatment.
Trainings were offered June 2018 in two major cities, Lusaka and Ndola, to 36 organizations across the country. The Ministry of Health for Zambia endorsed this training and has been involved in follow up, reporting that as a result of the training they have seen an increase of referrals to the country’s mental health hospital, Chainama Hills. Special thanks to George Tafuna and Gabriel Lungu from the Ministry of Health.
The trainings lasted 2 days at each location. All attendees received curriculum packs with leader guides, instructional dvds, games and also were offered reimbursement for art supply purchases relevant to the curriculum. It was a powerful time of local organizations coming together to bring healing to their communities. It was healing for the people being trained as well, with tears, laughter and bonding.
The work of the grant continues, organizations are checking in with their progress August, December and March. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive as they take it into their communities and make it their own.
Special thanks to Andrew Meehan, Frank St. Amour, Paul Heckles, John Murray, Jill Gordy, Robin Broomall, Richard Graves, Lauren Littlefield and Jen Reider for their invaluable assistance.
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