2021-2025: Halfway houses and social economy enterprises
This project focuses on the women's life after treatment. A halfway house (aftercare) is being set up jointly, to which the women can move after completing their drug treatment. In addition, 3 businesses are being set up on an ongoing basis, where the women have the opportunity to work and where the profits go towards financing more women to enter treatment.
Rising Hope, with our partner in Tanzania, has achieved that there is a well-functioning treatment center for women who are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. However, our experience shows that something is needed after treatment to reduce relapse and improve the quality of life after treatment. Therefore, Rising Hope and The Light of Miracle will jointly establish a halfway house for women to move into after treatment. In the halfway house, the women are still protected, their daily lives are safe, they can help each other, and they receive support from staff and counselors, but the setting is more free than in the treatment center. In this way, the women get a protected taste of everyday life after treatment. In the halfway house, there will be various activities such as classes, counseling, joint meetings and mandatory volunteer services at the treatment center. There will also be a focus on working with the women to re-establish contact with their children in the best possible way. When the women were actively abusing, their children typically lived with family, friends or in orphanages. It is important that the contact or reunification takes place quietly and calmly, in a safe environment, with certainty about the present and the future. The halfway house can help to ensure this.
The halfway house will initially be linked to 3 social economy enterprises with work opportunities. Rising Hope and The Light of Miracle will together create these businesses from scratch and build them up. So far on the drawing board: a chicken farm, a restaurant and a hairdresser/nail salon.
The objectives of social economy enterprises are many. They will contribute to:
Support income so that women can gradually save to live and establish themselves outside the halfway house.
Enable work experience and skills so that women may gain employment later in life if they wish.
Support women to experience success.
The profits from the businesses will go to finance the running costs of the treatment centre, so that user fees are not needed.
Experience shows that many women in Tanzania want to seek treatment for drug abuse, but are unable to pay for their stay. Nor can they get their networks to pay for them due to discrimination. That's why Rising Hope and The Light of Miracle want to make drug addiction treatment free of charge. The profits from the social economy enterprises will be used to finance the center, so that the treatment center can become independent of external funding.
This project thus helps to make the entire treatment process and subsequent rehabilitation financially sustainable. The project also contributes to the sustainability of the addiction treatment so that the women can remain drug-free and establish a life for themselves and their children in the best possible way.
Status:
A grant of DKK 500,000 over 3 years has been received from CISU. The project started in October 2021 and the hall house is established and the women manage its daily operation.
A chicken farm, restaurant and sewing workshop have been set up.
Right now, the focus is on making the two centers and the companies work well. In addition, we are working hard to ensure that our partner The Light of Miracle undergoes development of their organizational capacity.