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Punarjani[RE-BIRTH] Charitable Trust for De-addiction & Rehabilitation
Posted Date:
27 Sep, 07
Last Response Date:
27 Sep, 07
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“Punarjani”(Re-Birth)
Charitable Trust FOR DE-addiction & rehabilitation
Reg no 217/2004,
POOMALA P.O. Thrissur 680581, INDIA.
E-mail: punarjanipoomala@yahoo.com
www.punarjani.org
————————————————————————————————————————————— A New Venture for Recovery from Alcoholism
Punarjani means the rebirth, yes, really it is a rebirth not only for its founderer, Managing Trustee DR. Johns K. Mangalam, but also for more than 200 alcoholic addicts and for their whole family members.
This is really a miraculous achievement for an NGO, which was formed by a group of Ex-Alcoholics, who were victims of Alcoholism ,some persons affected by this malady and few humanists who have real concern about them.
Punarjani is at Poomala, a sleepy village 16 km away from Thrissur town near Mulamkunnathukavu. This organization is distinct from any other organization due to its peculiarities. This initiative is led by DR. Johns K. Mangalam, who has several distinction to this credit like two first ranks, a Ph.D. Degree in Philosophy, a short term teaching experience at Sree Kerala Varma College,Thrissur and was a practising Advocte.He was a severe Alcoholic for twenty years but come out of it nine years ago.
Poomala which is the home village of DR. Johnson also has the history of wide spread Alcoholism because in the early days of migration about 60 years back,the predominant population here had been relying heavily on alcohol to pep up their spirit in their struggle for survival amidst harsh weather, attack of wild animals and disease like malaria
Most of the first generation migrants used to consume illicit liquor from their childhood. Many of them lost their lives prematurely either due to suicide and diseases like liver problems or by accidents -all linked to alcoholin some way or other. But even though DR. Johns belongs to this group, by the grace of God he recovered from it after many admissions and discharges from a number of De-addiction treatment centers.
It was a chance realization for DR. Johnson that,Alcoholism is a disease and from it anybody can recover through adopting a new life style and through prompt knowledge about the nature, reasons, effects and methods of recovery from it. When he recognized that his efforts to get away from liquor were finally successful after innumerable failures, he tried to influence his friends and others to recover from the disease which is being wrongly called as a “bad habit”.
Together with his friends who had also recovered from Alcoholism and with the help of some humanitarian friends they started an organization with the goal to recover and rehabilitate Alcoholics and their families and also educate them about the evil influence of alcohol.
Through out the last three and half years they have been conducting Seminars, creative discussions between the experts in this subject and the public. They also conducted various awareness camps and classes about the problems faced by the alcoholics and the reasons along with solutions for the condition of Alcoholism. Now they are conducting an experiment with their newly innovated means and methods to release an Alcoholic from this condition.
Punarjani produced a audio-video CD about Alcoholism by the same name Punarjani and conducted the screening of the said documentary at many places, in order to create awareness about this disease. They distributed hundreds of copies of the said documentary in the CD form through out Kerala free of cost. Through the tireless efforts of volunteers of Punarjani they could act as a catalyst for the recovery of a large number of alcoholic addicts within a very short span of time.
Meanwhile they purchased one acre of land at the beautiful and tranqiul area adjacent to Poomala Dam. Now at the said site in two small sheds they are conducting a de-addiction center by the name Punarjani Retreat Centre through which they are experimenting and implementing some newly generated ideas about the means and methods of recovery from Alcoholism.
They emphasize the fact that alcoholism is a family disease which not only affects the mind, body and soul of an Alcoholic, but also affects the whole family . Thus, they begin by motivating the patient along with proper counseling and education for the family members who had also become mentally ill due to the impact or after effects of Alcoholism on a person whom they depend. In fact, they are the scapegoats of Alcoholism.
Alcoholics usually resist undergoing any sort of treatment due to two reasons. The formally accepted methods of treatment which restrict the total freedom of an Alcoholic by imprisoning him in a De-addiction Center for a very long period of time, and the use of heavy doses of medicines ,are not accepted by them, because they fear to loss of the freedom which they ‘used to misuse’ for a very long period of time. Most of them fear the use of any sort of medicine for recovery from Alcoholism because from their experience they know very well that it may create physical and mental problems for them after treatment, i.e. If they continue to consume liquor , in most cases it may lead to death or paralysis of the patient.
The possibility of the chance for failure in the treatment and consequent withdrawal of moral support and sympathy from the kith and kin,while undergoing expensive treatment , may cause loss of morale,especially if he does not recover completely from Alcoholism even after the so called rigorous treatment at any De- addiction treatment Center.
It is in this respect that Punarjani differs from any other recovery centers. Alcoholics are united to join a combined effort to recover from their condition by living and sharing together for a period of 21 days at Punarjani, which has “no walls and gates” and at which they will not be compelled to consume any medicine or follow any specific religion. They even advise the patients to come voluntarily for the recovery ,after consuming a last peg .
A total change in the attitude of all the members of the family of the patient and of the society towards the Alcoholic and the recovered Alcoholic is an essential pre-requisite for recovery and long endurance of the newly obtained sobriety of any Alcoholic. Unconditional moral, financial and other support is inevitable for the sustenance of the new state of life of a recovered alcoholic
PUNARJANI- THE NEW APPROACHES OF PURNARJANI FOR RECOVERY FROM ALCOHOLISM AND WHY IT IS NEW?
The most important hindrance to solve the problem of Alcoholism is that Keralaites even though they may be highly educated and literate, are not properly aware of the fact that Alcoholism is a disease from which anyone can recover by adequate means and methods.
The other important hindrance to achieve and fulfill the objectives of the TRUST ,Punarjani is that all the family members of an Alcoholic will , in due course, become the victims of the same disease,and all the members of the family become prey to Alcoholism . The mental, social, financial and family life of an addict will make adverse impacts upon the mental, social, financial life of the whole family and will create complex problems in all spheres of their life.
The fundamental principles or Axioms of Punarjani about Alcoholism are that “Alcoholism is a disease’’, “Alcoholism is a family decease’’ and “there is no Medicine which can offer recovery to the disease of Alcoholism’’.
However, we can recover from the disease, Alcoholism by some other means and methods and so Punarjani advocates that a true awareness about the real reasons and nature of Alcoholism as a disease is the most important thing in order to get rid of this disease.
Unfortunately even though we are very proud of our high rate of literacy and educatio
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