By Thomas Scaria
Jaffna, May 2, 2022: Cletus (name changed) is just 24 but now undergoes treatment for heroin addiction at a rehabilitation center in northern Sri Lanka.
The region, once the center of the armed conflict between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tigers, now faces a new crisis – Substance Use Disorder, says Sister Theophane Cross, head of the Holy Family congregation’s Jaffna province.
The congregation in 2020 started its mission among substance abuse victims when it celebrated its 200th anniversary of foundation.
The civil war ended in 2009, but the island nation is on another war – against drugs — “which is much more challenging and enslaving,” Sister Cross told Matters India.
The nuns, who are yet to open a deaddiction center, refer their patients to the ‘Change Rehabilitation Centre’ managed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate priests in Jaffna.
Sister Cross says she is deeply pained that most abuse victims are depressed young people with no jobs. “A lot of them are addicted to drugs and alcohol,” she bemoans.
Cletus was brought to the Oblate father’s center in September 2021 by his wife, sister and mother on the advice of some Holy Family nuns who had visited them.
Cletus says he was introduced to heroin by college friends in 2019. As the addiction grew, he left studies and took up his family’s traditional occupation – fishing.
“I could not think of anything else,” Cletus told Matters India.
Cletus’ addiction grew further after the country went into a lockdown in 2020 because of the pandemic.
He married his girlfriend in 2021 convinced that she could change him after the marriage.
Several young people in the northern region like Cletus took to drugs after the war, says Oblate Father Vincent Patrick, the director of the center.
The priest, who started working in the addiction field two decades ago with mostly alcohol dependents, alleges that the administration uses drugs to suppress and disable Tamil youth after the war.
Salvatorian Father Antony Nirmal Suranjan, who works as a counselor along with Holy Family sisters, told Matters India May 2 that the new economic crises in the island nation have further aggravated the youth frustration.
“They are either forced to flee country for greener pastures, or seek unrealistic pleasure in drugs or such intoxicants,” he observed.
He was surprised to see several young drug users, especially Catholics, in Puttalam, his village in the west coast during a recent visit.
Recent data from the National Dangerous Drugs Control Board in Colombo shows that police arrested 95,496 people in 2020 for drug-related offences. Among them, 50,378 (52.8 percent) were held for heroin-related cases and 40,732 (45 percent) for cannabis-related crimes. The remaining cases were related to other drugs like cocaine, methamphetamines, and hallucinogens.
In November 2020, the Indian Coast Guard detained a Sri Lankan vessel near the Tuticorin Port in Tamil Nadu, and seized 96 kilo heroin and 18 kilo methamphetamine.
On September 1, 2021, the Sri Lankan Navy has seized 336 kilo heroin from a trawler in the high seas off the coast of Male worth nearly US$20 million, the largest seizure of heroin in Sri Lanka.
A UN report based on the seizure figures says arrests and court cases related to drug cases have increased in recent years. Most drugs come from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
The drug control board monitors and assists the drug treatment and rehabilitation processes by private and designated treatment centers. According to its records, 11 designated treatment centers are based in prisons for those caught in trafficking, and around 13 are private rehabilitation centers.
The Holy Family provincial says their congregation took up the new ministry in collaboration with the Oblates priests and assigned five sisters to develop a community-based family apostolate to work among substance abusers.
The sisters were trained by the India-based Ecolink Institute in collaboration with the Colombo Plan in Universal Treatment Curriculum on Substance Use Disorder. The training prepared the nuns with knowledge and skills to work with substance abusers.
One of them, Sister Prothmary Marianatham, says the training has not only helped them gain more knowledge and skills, but made them confident to work with of substance abuse patients.
“Most patients had grown up in a conflicting situation with insecurity and trauma during the civil war and the latest pandemic has added to their woes,” the nun, a counselor in the Oblate center, told GSR.
Sister Marianatham says the center is just a drop in the ocean of “growing drug menace in Sri Lanka.” She stresses the need to open more such facilities for treatment in the country.
Sister Cross says their congregation’s main mission has been family apostolate and addiction is a major issue they have faced during family visits. “We cannot expect a family to be in peace, when there is a substance use disorder at home,” she explains.
Cletus says the lack of jobs and poverty has turned some youth into drug peddlers.
Murugan (not real name), another resident of the center, says the priests and the nuns have saved them. “But majority are still in the streets,” he said during a group sharing session where GSR was present.
Most residents shared the same stories — unhappy childhoods, post traumatic disorders, school dropouts, peer pressure and absence of guidance.
Matters India saw several family members at the center who had come to meet their recovering relatives and attend a day of family counseling. Among them were Cletus’ wife, sister and mother.
Speaking to Matters India, Cletus’ mother Mary expressed hope that the treatment would get her son back to normal life. “More than me, I feel sorry for his young wife,” said Mary, pointing to Savitha who looked hopeful and positive.
“I am sure my husband will be alright. We want to start a new life,” said an optimistic Savitha.
The Holy Family provincial says her sisters are engaged more in community-based intervention as “we can reach out to them at their own homes and streets” rather than waiting for them at treatment facilities at their chronic stage.
Sister Shobha Antonette, her companion, said she regularly visits a fishermen’s village where most young people are into drugs and adults into alcohol.
“The addiction has crept into every family in the community and the government has done very little to address the situation,” Antonette bemoans.
She says it is “really difficult” to work with addicts who indulge in crimes, violence, and unrest. “This is a challenging ministry, but we have to do it,” asserts the nun in her 40s.
Antonette is happy that her superiors support their mission, but find many sisters unwilling to get into the field. “They are scared;” explains the nun who views addiction not as a crime or moral issue, “but a disease that requires our empathetic healing.”
“The more we learn about this disease, the more we are confident in working with them,” she adds.
However in Sri Lanka, the drug lords include some politicians, allege some residents of the Oblate center. “They have vested interests in not only money but to spoil the youths,” said one of them on condition of anonymity.
Salvatorian Father Suranjan also sees an unholy agenda in promoting drug abuse especially among the Tamil youth, as “the government never wants them to be empowered.”
“Drugs keep the youth enslaved forever, and it could be a novel war strategy,” the priest told Matters India citing various examples. “Young people who protest government’s wrong policies are always a headache for them,” said Father Suranjan adding the “war like situation is still continuing in Sri Lanka.”
The Salvatorian priest joined several priests, nuns and youth to protest against the government in the national capital, in the wake of the economic breakdown.
The Holy Family congregation was founded on May 20, 1820, in Bordeaux, France. Spain welcomed it in 1843, Belgium in 1854 and Sri Lanka in 1862.
The congregation now serves in 21 countries, four continents with 1,474 members. Sri Lanka has 480 apostolic and nine contemplative nuns spread over 86 communities in 12 dioceses and two provinces – Colombo and Jaffna.