Samantha Young: Looking towards better days for Phoenix project
From 3A
massive stretch of land. My goal is to complete the dream of removing the women [from proximity to the men] and then the possibility of getting additional land to relocate the men,” she said.
She said as long as she is alive Phoenix will remain open and she is preparing her children to take up the mantle as she recalled that their father always assigned them tasks involving the project.
For the first time this year, the project received a government subvention and Young expressed gratitude and the hope that it can continue as it helped with adequately staffing the programme. She also expressed gratitude to the many donors who have been supporting in cash and kind over the many years and some of these include Bounty Farms, Banks DIH, Sterling Products, Guyana Beverages, Guyana Rice Development Board, Ansa McAl, Noble House Seafood, NAMILCO, and Toucan, among many others. The project has many volunteers and is assisted with horticultural therapy through NAREI with the small garden they have and a volunteer. The board of directors is very vibrant and assists in the running of the programme.
The project is now also part of the Drug Treatment Court and Young said it is not something new as in the past Phoenix worked with families who did not want to press charges against their relatives if they opted for treatment.
One of the new challenges is “dual diagnosis” in that persons are addicted and also have mental disorder. For this, Phoenix works along with the Georgetown Hospital Psychiatric Department and these persons are treated and may be kept for a few days. But there are times when space is an issue and the project has to take on the responsibility of keeping them until they attain some stability before they can start the recovery path.
“We have had challenging days, but we are hoping for better days,” Young said, adding that there are many success stories of persons who were helped and returned to contributing positively to society. But there are others who relapsed as well.
“Clarence used to always say in this life you help some and you lose some,” she said.
Phoenix is located at 90 Block CC Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara. The telephone numbers are 220-6825 and 6604612 and contact can also be made through email addresses rsyoung3056636@yahoo.com and prpsarx@yahoo.com.