By Emilia Sten and Anna Kevin (Originally published on Oct 2, 2013)
Suleiman Mauly was a normal child who liked playing football and was good in school. In school, he felt bored and started to hang out with the “wrong” people and use drugs. After a while, he became an addict. He says he ended up hurting himself and others more than he could ever imagine. Today, he is clean and the founder of Detroit Sober House in Zanzibar, together with Fatma Juma.
They call it a recovery community, and the idea of sober housing is to change the addict’s environment and give them a drug-free zone. When using drugs, your friends are often also users, so getting away from them and making new friends who are not drug users is essential for healing from the addiction. They can find someone to talk to at the sober house about their problems – people who have been through the same.
It is the addict’s own choice to join the sober house, but often, they get help from their families to pay for the stay. During the first months of the recovery, the people are not allowed to go outside the sober house. In the beginning, many of them are sick as a side effect of getting clean from the drugs and need rest.
As their recovery improves, they start participating in the daily programme. The programme consists of yoga, meditation, self-support meetings, and more. The recoveries can participate in different programmes, like arts and sports, depending on their wishes. Many recoveries are artists and make paintings and sculptures at the sober house. On November 12th, they will have a big exhibition of their art. There, they will also sell jewellery and clothes they make themselves.
The sober house doesn’t employ anyone to do the daily duties because the recovering people take care of making food, cleaning, etc. Volunteers are very welcome since they need all the help they can get. Actually, a volunteer from Art in Tanzania introduced the yoga sessions to the sober house.
At the moment, Detroit Sober House have 30 recoveries who have suffered from addictions to heroin, marijuana and/or alcohol. The staff contains five persons. As the recoveries get better, they may become volunteers, helping the staff with the house arrangements.
Even after six months or more, when they are spotless from their addictions, they still have contact with the people at the sober house to avoid falling back into old habits. They are like a family and are there for each other when help is needed.
The Detroit Sober House also runs a campaign to prevent children and youngsters from starting to use drugs. The campaign is called “Be smart, don’t start.” The group visits schools, handing out brochures and telling young people their stories. Hopefully, there will be fewer drug addicts in Zanzibar in the future.
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