Recovery coach Cyril Williams (left) and Key to Freedom director Elvison Adamus (right) with clients standing between them in front of the house in St Peters that serves as a rehab center.
PHILIPSBURG--Dozens of addicts found shelter at Passion Fruit Road 19 for short or long periods of time and rehabbed from cocaine, crack, marijuana and alcohol addiction. Key to Freedom Christian Rehabilitation Centre has been offering intervention therapy in this house for six years, but now the foundation itself urgently needs assistance.
The nine men who currently live in the house – two addiction counsellors and seven clients – are in danger of ending up on the street. The foundation, which is run by volunteers and relies on donations, cannot pay the rent of US $2,600 per month.
St. Maarten Development Fund (SMDF) last paid the rent in January of this year and settled the GEBE bill. Since then, the rehab centre has been indebted to the owner of the house. Requests for help from Government went unanswered.
The homeowner now presents the foundation with a choice: pay rent immediately or evacuate the house.
It is unclear why SMDF no longer pays the rent. The foundation could not be reached for comment.
The ambiance was gloomy in the house at Passion Fruit Road 19 on Easter Monday. Sitting at an empty kitchen table were Key to Freedom Director Elvison Adamus (60) and recovery coach Cyril Williams (74). They both looked distraught. Adamus, throwing his hands in the air: “What can I say? We do not receive a stipend; we are dependent on donations. Thanks to a generous giver from the neighbourhood, we have food. But there is no money for gasoline, and I think strongly about selling the car.”
Williams, who has been off crack for 10 years after an addiction of more than 20 years, living on the street near the courthouse in Philipsburg, is overcome with emotions. He does his best to make it clear that he fears losing his newfound base. Since he has been clean he has able to establish contact with his family again. To his great joy he gets visitors in St. Peters, something that is not self-evident for addicts, who are often rejected by their family.
This Easter Monday it was quiet in the house. In the living room, three men hung in front of the television. One of them was a former client of the Turning Point Foundation rehab clinic on Pond island, where he was forcibly treated. For a year he has been living in St. Peters where he voluntarily participates in group therapy for which he gets out of bed every day at 5:00am, just like his roommates.
Punctually at 5:30am the group session starts, led by Adamus, a former hardcore user who, 22 years ago, after a criminal career in Colombia and drug trafficking in the Caribbean, saved himself in St. Maarten, spurred on by a government worker who saw potential in him to change lives. After training in Curaçao, working at rehab centre Brasami in Willemstad, becoming Victory Outreach director in Aruba, and joining Yabi di Libertad (Key to Freedom) in Curaçao, Adamus returned to St. Maarten to start Key to Freedom for addicts from the Windward Islands.
The approach focuses on total abstinence, not on tapering off slowly.
“Clients volunteer, often encouraged by family and friends,” Adamus said. “When they arrive, their luggage is searched. We do not accept any amount of drugs nor alcohol in the house. As an expert by experience, I know all the tricks and I immediately see if someone has used drugs: dilated pupils from cocaine, red eyes from marijuana, or crack-related agitated behaviour. And, of course, alcohol you can smell from a distance.”
Strict house rules, discipline and regularity – working on recovery takes one person a month, another six months and yet another needs a year or more to get rid of his addiction.
“We get people from all walks of life here; government officials snorting coke, a GEBE employee who is addicted, some clients go to work every day while they follow the programme here. They join the circle in the living room at 5:30 in the morning and go to their job or school an hour later.”
The therapy is not only aimed at self-reliance, but also at restoring ties, of connectivity. Addiction makes many victims, Adamus stressed. “It affects friends and family, results in theft, fraud, and often violent crime.” Thoughtfully: “The men you see here are on their way to recovery, but they’re not there yet, they’re not done yet. Imagine what can happen when these men have to fend for themselves again, out on the street.”
One of the Key to Freedom clients is entirely dependent on care. He is bedridden. After being rehabbed from cocaine and alcohol, the health of the diabetic patient went downhill at a rapid pace; the man is skin over bone, cannot walk independently and is hardly able to make himself understood.
In the absence of space at the White and Yellow Cross Care Foundation in St. John’s Estate, nurses from this foundation go to the home in St. Peters twice a day to wash the patient and change his bed and clothes. The Key to Freedom volunteers feed him and take care of him further. “They told us that we have to wait until someone dies in the nursing home before they can get the help they need,” Adamus said. “In the meantime, we are doing our best to help him, but where should he go if we are being evicted? “
Key to Freedom remains listed on the SMDF website as one of the projects the foundation serves.
“Modelled after Curaçao’s Jabi di Libertad, Key to Freedom provides residence rehabilitation for men who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction through coaching in a safe residential setting. Additionally, through its faith-based approach, Key to Freedom provides counselling and fellowship for residents. As a voluntary rehabilitation facility, Key to Freedom maintains a warm and welcoming atmosphere to encourage men of all backgrounds to enter the facility. Accommodating up to 12 men at a time, Key to Freedom’s staff provide personalised mentorship and support to the facility’s residents,” SMDF described the rehab centre, listed under the caption “Social Care”.
“One of our core goals is to create a Society that Cares,” SMDF stated. “In our view, a Society that Cares sees the need to create a strong social fabric that supports the most vulnerable groups.”
