{"id":4334,"date":"2012-07-16T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=4334"},"modified":"2015-08-14T19:12:26","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T22:12:26","slug":"drug-rehabilitation-in-niteroi-the-irma-aracy-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=4334","title":{"rendered":"Drug Rehabilitation in Niter\u00f3i: The Irm\u00e3 Aracy House"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4337\" title=\"Ney\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/centre.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"369\" height=\"209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/centre.jpg 615w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/centre-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/centre-174x98.jpg 174w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 369px) 100vw, 369px\" \/>We caught the 10 o\u2019clock ferry to Niter\u00f3i. The boat was maybe a quarter full, mostly\u00a0families off to see their relatives on the other side of the bay on a Sunday. It was quiet as it was\u00a0still early, the clouds from the night before still hanging over the water. On the other\u00a0side, we met Ney Nunez de Souza, who picked us up in his car. Ney is one of the\u00a0leaders of the Irm\u00e3 Aracy House Rehabilitation Centre. He is a confident man who\u00a0speaks directly and with purpose, rarely wasting words. Ney drives much as he talks,\u00a0plowing straight ahead without hesitation or fear.<\/p>\n<p>I figured that the drug rehabilitation centre would be close to the harbour, most\u00a0likely in a community within the city. Yet we continued to drive and soon the buildings\u00a0gave way to love motels, farm equipment lots, and cultivated fields. Ney sped through\u00a0the small towns with purpose; I was unsure if it was eagerness or whether we were\u00a0late. Finally (and perhaps mercifully), we turned off onto a dirt road and entered a\u00a0field ringed by tall hills. Nestling comfortably inside the peaks lay The Centre. We\u00a0had arrived.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4341\" title=\"house\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/house.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"377\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/house.jpg 628w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/house-300x164.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 377px) 100vw, 377px\" \/>The grounds were impressive, six buildings in all and enough dorm\u00a0beds to hold up to 100 guests. Ney informed us that the Centre had another site a\u00a0bit further off, exclusively for female patients, as isolating the guests by sex removed\u00a0another distraction. The Centre receives no state funding and survives entirely on\u00a0private donations, mostly from community-run church congregations. The Centre has\u00a0a cafeteria, church, a large vegetable garden, a fishing pond and chicken pasture.\u00a0Ney explained that the Centre provides its own labor, with the patients in charge of\u00a0growing and preparing their own food, as well as maintaining the farm equipment.\u00a0In exchange for food and shelter, the patients must refrain from the use of any\u00a0substances. This includes cigarettes: a marked departure from rehabilitation\u00a0programs elsewhere, where smoking addiction is viewed as the lesser of many evils.\u00a0Here, no one smoked. Had they relapsed and sought a cigarette or something\u00a0harder, the sheer isolation of the Centre would be their greatest obstacle as it sits 5\u00a0miles from Niter\u00f3i and is only serviced by a lone bus which runs intermittently during\u00a0the day.<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7QY6XVamY5U\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As our visit was on a Sunday, patients were free from most of their chores. Some\u00a0attended a passionate church service in the small chapel, while others chatted\u00a0quietly with family guests and friends who had come to visit. All patients are admitted voluntarily and thus are free to leave at any time. Ney\u00a0explained that most stay, on average, between six months and one year, often\u00a0leaving and returning multiple times during that period. The typical progression is\u00a0that guests leave before they are truly ready, relapse, then return for a longer period\u00a0of time. The treatment they receive at the Centre revolves around\u00a0counseling. No medications are given, save for patients with chronic\u00a0conditions, such as diabetes. Instead, support groups are the tool used to dig\u00a0through personal tragedy, build friendship and, hopefully, a foundation stable enough\u00a0to resist future temptation. Those that do make it often return to their home\u00a0communities. They serve as living examples to others suffering from drug and\u00a0alcohol addiction and provide resources on how to seek help. As a testimony to this,\u00a0the majority of staff at the rehabilitation centre are former addicts and the majority of\u00a0patients we met were brought to the Centre by former patients themselves.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4339\" title=\"church service\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"368\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church2.jpg 613w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church2-300x172.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 368px) 100vw, 368px\" \/>This form of treatment is especially effective for addicts from low-income communities because local social\u00a0bonds are already strong, as years of government neglect have forced community\u00a0members to rely heavily on one another for survival. The vast majority of patients hail\u00a0from favelas in and around Niter\u00f3i, though the Centre is open to any\u00a0and all who wish to attend. For many, the Irm\u00e3 Aracy House is their last stop, having\u00a0already tried and failed at individual attempts at sobriety. Their presence is proof\u00a0of their desire to change as well as the humbling admission that they need help to do\u00a0it.\u00a0More often than not, this great personal epiphany has come only after the patient\u00a0has hit rock bottom, having burned their last bridge of support, ruined their last\u00a0personal relationship or sold their last item of worth.<\/p>\n<p>Many we spoke with at the Centre were years into their addiction before they arrived, their substances of\u00a0choice ranging from alcohol to marijuana, cocaine to heroin\u2026 and crack. As Ney\u00a0said, \u201cCrack breaks people and ruins them quickly.\u201d He explained that crack had\u00a0struck the favelas particularly hard due to its accessibility: it is relatively easy to\u00a0produce and very cheap. Compounding the problem is the ubiquitous nature of the\u00a0triggers that usher people toward drug addiction. Violence, financial insecurity, the\u00a0loss of a loved one \u2013 these are stories of everyday life within the favelas, and Niter\u00f3i in particular. Its communities have experienced an uptick in drug violence as UPP\u00a0crackdowns in Rio de Janeiro have pushed traffickers to move their operations\u00a0across the bay. With them, they have carried fear, anger and frustration into\u00a0communities that receive only a modicum of the media attention and\u00a0government resources that development and crime-fighting projects in Rio enjoy on\u00a0a daily basis.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-4338\" title=\"church\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"363\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church.jpg 605w, https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/church-300x166.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 363px) 100vw, 363px\" \/>As far as the future of the Centre is concerned, the hope is to one day\u00a0attract the attention of a government agency and receive the large grants made\u00a0available to other state welfare programs. Unfortunately, drug and alcohol addiction\u00a0programs are rarely at the top of politicians\u2019 to-do lists, as they offer few photogenic\u00a0opportunities and are rarely viewed in a positive light by local media. Still, there is\u00a0a belief that, with time, and continued positive results, they will eventually attract the\u00a0attention of those beyond the community. Sooner or later, Brazil will have to face the\u00a0reality of a war on drugs and examine its root: drug addiction. When it does, it will be community-based social programs like the Irm\u00e3 Aracy Rehabilitation Centre, which will\u00a0lead the charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>We caught the 10 o\u2019clock ferry to Niter\u00f3i. The boat was maybe a quarter full, mostly\u00a0families off to see their relatives on the other side of the bay on a Sunday. It was quiet as <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=4334\" title=\"Drug Rehabilitation in Niter\u00f3i: The Irm\u00e3 Aracy House\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":4340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284,335,329],"tags":[557,258,125,552,1197,551,1292,15,123],"writer":[424],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-profiles","8":"category-policies","9":"category-solutions","10":"tag-addiction","11":"tag-community-solution","12":"tag-drug-traffic","13":"tag-evangelical-church","14":"tag-greater-rio","15":"tag-niteroi","16":"tag-organizing","17":"tag-pacifying-police-unit","18":"tag-religion","19":"writer-paul-sieff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=4334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}