“The more one forgives himself-by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love-the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself” – Viktor Frankl
“Don’t let the past steal your present” – Terri Guillemets
At the time of our birth, we knew nothing. We were protected by God and our Mothers. At the time we started crying, suckling breast milk, crawling, walking, talking like babies, every process depended on our God, our parents, and the eco-system. Until today, the moments of walking remain unlimited in form, time, and nature.
Addictions obstruct man from realizing the meaning of his life. Every person is unique and specific in many ways: in thinking, dreaming, in his/her talent and passion, and in life purpose. This uniqueness in us grows and develops. Sometimes our uniqueness suffers under the influence of various factors, but the leading factor killing the meaning of life-the life purpose of the youth significantly is addiction: drug addiction, alcohol addiction, and sex addiction. Addiction is a danger to the youth.
Purpose Rwanda, through its Mission:: To create Purposeful, Positive and Addiction Free citizens towards enhancing self-sustainability and socio-economic transformation in Rwanda walks with addiction patients in order to support them towards self re-discovery. Purpose Rwanda is motivated by the belief that addiction patients need necessary help so that the addiction in them is killed other than being killed by addiction. Once they re-discover themselves, the addiction patients are supported to discover their life purposes in order to eventually become Purposeful Agents of Transformation in their communities so as to contribute to poverty eradication at their times-the common enemy of the community in Rwanda and in Africa as a whole. Addiction and poverty are killers of humanity which need eradication.
Therefore, to Purpose Rwanda, walking with Addiction Patients towards self re-discovery means the following:
It means Love and Care: love and care enable the addiction patient to open up to share his/her experiences, what led to the addiction problem, his/her needs, and the contents of his/her broken heart. The love and care Purpose Rwanda shares act as a compass to the addiction patient. It enables them to start thinking in line to a new direction, a better direction, a direction that brings them back to a rational way of action. The love and care further is an indication that they belong to the family, community, and the nation, this makes the individual voluntarily discover the dangers posed by addiction –thus, considering to take popular direction: staying free from addiction as a new way of life.
Counseling Services: counseling is a crucial tool Purpose Rwanda uses to help addiction patients overcome trauma, self-rejection that may lead to suicide, to develop some considerable level of human sense in order to make value judgments and evaluation of their actions. This service profoundly makes the patient denounce addiction and its related damaging behaviors which are a menace to the individual, the family, and the community at large.
Treatment Services: the combination of scientific and religious approaches are available and critical to addiction patients. Purpose Rwanda recommends those whose problem require scientific/medical attention for further treatment while religious approach comes in place as a means to build and strengthen the amount of one’s faith that God is able, willing, and merciful therefore, His Will is that all Human Beings are created for and with a specific purpose which should not be destroyed by addiction. While the scientific approach comes with costs, the religious approach is priceless but rooted in faith in God as a healer of all broken souls.
Building a Relation of Trust: through building trust, two or more people are bonded together for a common course. The trust goes beyond mere knowledge about names or physical location, but knowledge about the deeper issues that must have resulted in addiction. When an addiction patient trusts the Occupational Therapist and a Counselor or Councilors, he/she feels secure to discuss the history of the problem that needed solving. He/She is motivated to discuss some of the hidden effects generated due to consumption of drugs or alcohol; in this way, Purpose Rwanda’s action is based on well-informed knowledge, therefore, intervention is not based on guesswork but actual information. That is why one would not go wrong if trust is involved in shaping the organization’s work in fighting addiction.
Illuminating the Road to Self Re-Discovery: Purpose Rwanda sheds the light on the dark path the addiction patient is standing in. With the light in place, the prospects of looking at self differently and with aim of making better choices evolve. Darkness hides the wrong or good values of man. Light enables better visualization of self and hope that lies years ahead. It enriches self re-discovery and willingness to stay alive and serve others and God which is the ideal reason for one’s existence in the Universe.
Building Hope: In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”. As an organization, we hope for a better future that lies ahead if victims of addiction in turn remain hopeful but willing to recover. Generally, sometimes people lose hope in life when hit by problems, addictions make it worse. The message of Purpose Rwanda is: hope keeps one walking forward even if addiction problems still exist. Hope is not static, it grows, the more it grows, the more addiction patients choose to become Purposeful Agents of Transformation and participate in community development. Addiction and hope are not good friends, we advise our patients to choose hope other than addiction.
Showing that He/She matters to the World: our message is clear even if it may not be sweet. Accepting that one has an obligation to the world sometimes seems scary but it’s not. If you do the right things for yourself and for ten or more others, you are meeting worldly obligations. To change the world for the betterment of humanity, the small portion of contribution by every citizen of the world matter most. The world becomes a better place to live in when efforts to shape the lives of addiction patients to reject addiction gains popular partnership and support to ensure they too become Purposeful Agents of Transformation. Accepting to make a contribution to the world comes with new challenges and sacrifices to those who must denounce addiction in their lives. But it’s a good sacrifice that our patients have become convinced to undertake and practice. This is what makes walking with patients of addiction towards self re-discovery eventful and phenomenal.
Building a sense of Self Acceptance: when one does not accept who he/she is at a given time, taking the path of addiction is likely. Becoming a former addiction patient also presents new challenges: loss of friends, the need to look for new friends, new environmental challenges among others. Purpose Rwanda supports the reintegration of former addiction patients in the community by first and foremost enabling them to love that the choice of denouncing addiction is good for themselves and for the community they live in.
Empowerment in Fighting Negativity: negativity in attitude, ideologies, to one’s environment prepares the fertile ground for addiction. We journey together with the addiction patients by inculcating in them values of positivity as opposed to negativity. Positivity pushes them forward. Positive attitude, thinking, ideologies, mind, spirit, values play a fundamental role in fighting negativity on every front.
Supporting them to acknowledge they have God Anointed Life Purpose: the basic knowledge that our life purposes are anointed by God improves our relationships with Him, and we ask for His blessings that we need to effectively make these life purposes helpful in our lifetimes and beyond. God has never anointed anyone to become an addiction patient, but rather Co-Creator in doing what is purposeful, Godly, and beneficial to the community we are in. In this way, we direct people to God.
To enable Addiction Patients to access Mentorship, Coaching, Training and Empowerment Opportunities (MCTE): This is a powerful project that shapes the skill and character of Purposeful Agents of Transformation. Once they have recovered from addiction, the former addiction patients are taken through the MCTE process rigorously to improve on their skill levels, knowledge, and character in order to embark on socio-economic transformation of self, and communities. They are further encouraged to plant the seeds of socio-economic transformation in strategic parts of their communities in order to expand the growth and development opportunities in Rwanda and in Africa.
Guiding Against Dangers of Relapse: “Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you” – Aldous Hoxley.” The journey to total recovery is underpinned by Consistence, resilience, and the willpower of the mind. Have a diary, mark the days you have never gone back to drugs or alcohol or illicit sex. Celebrate those days every day and every month. The more the celebrations are, the fewer chances of relapse.
Self-re-discovery should be embraced by addiction patients as a means of life-saving projects as well as for becoming Purposeful Agents of Transformation. Purpose Rwanda will walk with you in this noble journey of self re-discovery.
It’s beautiful to remain a Purposeful, Positive, and Addiction Free Generation.
