Recovery gives you a second chance at life

From established professionals to schoolchildren battling the horrors of addiction, the Barberton Recovery Centre is giving them and their families a second chance at life and happiness.

Nestled in the foothills of Barberton, surrounded by views of the rolling mountains, the centre, which is also a non-profit organisation, was founded three years ago by locals Pr Melissa Venter and Pr Duppie du Plessis.

“The centre has been open for about three years and there have been many success stories. People have been reunited with their family and friends, they are able to find work and start building up their lives again,” said Venter.

“If you listen to the stories of the people who come to recover, many of them are professionals, such as lawyers and doctors. Some of the addictions we see are to alcohol, nyaope/whoonga (a mix of heroin and dagga), heroin, crystal meth, painkillers, CAT and even Ritalin.

“We see people from all walks of life. Addiction does not discriminate,” she said.

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Venter said some people who came in with an addiction to marijuana came in with psychoses. “There was one man who was extremely intelligent and was studying civil engineering. He had been a regular dagga smoker and one day, he started presenting symptoms of psychoses. We monitored him for two weeks and then referred him to a psychiatrist who prescribed him meds.

“Two weeks after he had started the medication, we saw a big change for the better, and then a few days later, he slipped back into psychoses and is now completely schizophrenic. It is quite scary. We have had quite a few cases like this.

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“Schools in the area will send children to us for a six-week programme if they are battling addiction. The youngest in-patient we have had was 18 years old. He came to love gardening while at the centre and after his recovery, he went to live with his grandmother. Two weeks later, I received several photos from this young man who had turned his grandmother’s whole yard into the most amazing vegetable garden that now sustains him and his grandmother as well as other family and community members.”

She said the journey leading to the founding of the centre started several years ago with her eldest son battling an addiction. “I had no idea how to help him. I was, and still am, a registered relationship counsellor, but did not know where to go or what to do for my son. The situation was too close to home and too personal for me, so I started looking for help, but everywhere we turned there were just closed doors,” she said.

That is when Venter reached out to Du Plessis who had recently moved to Barberton. “Pastor Duppie counselled my son for two weeks and then sent him to a rehab facility in Fouriesburg so he was far away from the influence of friends who were also addicts.”

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While her son was in recovery, she started a local support group at her church Luidkeels Extreme Ministries, for families who were going through a similar situation.

“We (Du Plessis and Venter) decided to add a clause in the church constitution that stipulated a recovery centre should be built. The property the facility is now on, became available shortly after the clause was written, and the centre was born.”

She said the facility houses 30 men from schoolgoing age, upwards. Venter said they are busy adding more rooms because they do not like to turn anyone away if they come looking for help.

“Many people do not understand addiction and its effects. The first time someone takes a drug, that is their choice, but the addiction that follows is not.”

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Venter said the centre focuses heavily on classes and sessions to help with the recovery process as well as skills development workshops such as construction, woodwork, steelwork and electrical work. She said the skills development is a very important part of the process as the skills taught to the residents will help them find work once they have recovered.

Venter added that the facility is one of the more affordable rehabilitation centres in the province with placement costing R4 000 a month.

To learn more about the centre and the work that is done, visit www.barberton-recovery-centre.business.site/or the Facebook page, Barberton Recovery Centre.

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