| LIFE-NET NEWS |
| by Ret Z. |
| Covering Poverty Widely in a Net of Many Voices |
| October 14, 2009 | No Profit; No Proceeds |
| Volume 13 Number 7 | All-Volunteer |
| "Give a family a fish, and they'll eat a meal; give them a Net, and they'll have fish for Life." |
| Child-Friendly Spaces in the Wake of Disaster |
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MANILA, PHILIPPINES; PADANG, INDONESIA Child survivors of the recent disasters in Asia are at risk of long term psychological distress or trauma without urgent help, says a World Vision (WV) expert on children. "Children are
especially vulnerable psychologically to disasters," says Tamara Tutnjevic, child protection advisor for WV's Asia Pacific region. "Can you imagine what it is like for a
young child to lose their house, maybe to see their friends or family members killed, and to see even their parents unable to provide for them? Literally everything a child knows about their world is turned upside down. It is very
important to give children a safe place where they can play, to provide them with sense of stability, routine, normalcy, to get them with their friends and away from the distress all around them."
As part of its 90-day earthquake response plan in Indonesia, WV is launching 13 Child-Friendly Spaces -- nine in Padang Pariaman and four in Kota Padang. The Spaces are structured, safe places where children can play with other children, relax in safety, learn basic skills to cope with the shocks and losses they've experienced, and receive informal education. The spaces are designed to provide psychosocial support to children after a disaster or conflict. The agency also is setting them up in Manila in response to Typhoon Katsana, which devastated the Philippine capital, killing more than 300 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. "Children who do not get help could end up being traumatized, both in the short and long term," Tutnjevic says. "In the short term, they can be overwhelmed by all the changes and fears, perhaps withdrawing into silence and experiencing vomiting, diarrhea, sleep disorders. They also can become more aggressive or be unable to participate in play. In the longer term, children could find it difficult to manage their emotions, lose interest in school, friends and social activities, and have long term developmental problems." She says that young children up to the age of four could suffer regressed development, going back to thumb sucking, suffering nightmares, or developing tics and beginning to stutter. WV is urging the Indonesian and Philippine governments and other humanitarian organizations to prioritize relief efforts that meet the urgent physical and psychosocial needs of children in the quake zone. Because of unsanitary conditions and lack of clean water or disinfectant, even minor injuries sustained in a disaster can become life-threatening without medical attention. In addition, collapsed buildings, destroyed homes, and flooded paths and waterholes continue to pose safety hazards for children left unsupervised. Children need appropriate food, adequate water and sanitation, and shelter as soon as possible. Without these basics, children's immunity against disease will be severely compromised. Source: World Vision |
| Woodbury Zoning Board Denies Variance for Shelter |
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WOODBURY, NJ The city planning and zoning board voted on Oct 6 to deny the use variance applications made by Beacon Home for Women, a women's shelter looking to establish a facility on North Evergreen Ave. After a five-hour meeting, the members of the board voted
unanimously to deny director Sally Hanna-Schaefer's request for a variance to set up a small office area in the building, according to board chair Stephen Duncan.
"We felt it was better to keep it going, get it over with, and we did," Duncan said. "We already had one postponement from last month to this month." He said the board denied the application because to allow such a use variance would deviate from the city's master plan. "There was a lot of things that were negative that were going to impact the neighborhood, and they never addressed any of those situations," Duncan said. "One of the major reasons was that it's a residential area, and to open it up to businesses, you're going to create another corridor for a business avenue like we have on Broad Street." Mark Shoemaker, the attorney representing Hanna-Schaefer, could not be reached for comment. Brian Uzdavinis, one of the current property owners along with his parents, said that Beacon Home for Women is still technically under contract to purchase the house, but he's not sure what the future holds for the property. "The way that the meeting went, I think that they would have a very good chance if they appealed it in court, but that's not our decision as the seller, that's theirs," Uzdavinis said. "The irony is that it could potentially have a much greater impact on the surrounding neighborhood if it's rented out to people as apartments, because there'd be more cars, more visible use, more trash generated, maybe even kids in the local school district." The variance application indicated that Hanna-Schaefer intended to convert the house, currently functioning as a three-unit apartment building, into a shelter for homeless pregnant women and their children. In her testimony at the meeting, Hanna-Schaefer said that up to four women -- one in each of the two apartments' two bedrooms and one young child -- would be sheltered there at any time, with the first floor to be used for minor administrative work, counseling space, and a classroom to teach life, cooking, parenting, and job skills. Hanna-Schaefer has decades of experience with such facilities, eg, her years as director of Mother-Child Residential Services on Broad Street. Source: Gloucester County Times |
| UN Finds AIDS Detection, Treatment Increased |
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JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA The number of people being tested for HIV more than doubled in dozens of countries last year, improving detection of AIDS and contributing to a major surge in those being treated. The ranks of people taking antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in the developing world rose by more than a million to surpass four million people globally, the United Nations said on Sept 30 in its 2009
progress report on HIV and AIDS.
The vast international effort on AIDS, financed by the US, European countries, and other donors, also ensured that growing numbers of children with AIDS, who had largely been left to die quick, unheralded deaths in past years, also benefited from the life-saving drug therapies. Their number rose to 275,700 in 2008 from 198,000 just a year earlier. And the portion of mothers who got medicines to prevent them from infecting their babies with HIV also rose markedly, to more than half those in need, in the parts of Africa hardest hit by the disease. "In the space of one year, you're seeing a huge ramping up of AIDS services," said Mark Stirling, regional director for the UN's efforts against AIDS in eastern and southern Africa. "It's unprecedented. In the acceleration and intensification of reach, 2008 was an extraordinary year." But the report also contained sobering news. While more than a million people were put on drugs in the past year -- drugs they will need for the rest of their lives -- 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2007, the latest year for which there were estimates. "We are walking backward on the treadmill," said Prof Salim Abdool Karim, who runs the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa, based in Durban. "We're not going to treat our way out of this problem." South Africa (SA), which has more HIV-positive citizens than any other nation, exemplified both the progress on treatment and the uncertain prospects for prevention, experts said. The number of people getting ARV drugs last year grew by more than half, faster than in any other country. SA now has by far the largest AIDS treatment program in the world. The UN estimated that more than 700,000 South Africans were getting the medicines, though advocates here have said the number is actually closer to 600,000 after discounting those who have died or dropped out. Even with the gains, however, advocates say that less than half those who need the drugs are getting them. SA is still overcoming setbacks from the years when then-president Thabo Mbeki denied that HIV caused AIDS and that ARV drugs were essential. The country's new leaders have broken cleanly with those views but still need to act with greater urgency on prevention, said Mark Heywood, deputy chairman of the South African National AIDS Council. "South Africa will get its act together, but it hasn't at the moment." Source: New York Times |
| Poverty Reduction Program Makes Headway in Dunseith |
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DUNSEITH, ND The Dunseith community had more people living in poverty than the Turtle Mountain Reservation itself, according to the 2000 US Census, said Delvin Cree, a steering committee member with Dunseith Horizons (DH). DH is one of 15 current Horizons communities in the state
of North Dakota. Horizons is a community leadership program aimed at reducing poverty in small (less than 5,000 population), rural communities faced with economic decline (at least 10% poverty) and demographic change.
"We live in the fourth district off the reservation but we are still part of the reservation proper because of the McCumber Agreement signed in 1904," said Cree. "We are in a unique situation because we can use tax credits and/or tax exemption as part of our development projects because of Indian trust land located in the Dunseith area. We also have the option to work with state government off Indian trust land to make projects happen. Both would be beneficial." The Dunseith community got involved in Horizons when Gail Gette, a Towner County extension agent and regional Horizons coach, approached the community in September 2008 to discuss the project, Cree said. "19 community members attended the informational meeting and left learning more about building leadership and reducing poverty issues in the Dunseith area." Then, said Cree, an application process requiring poverty statistics and other information was needed for the community to be accepted as eligible for Horizons. Since then, the group's efforts have included getting organized, conducting study circles to help people understand poverty and develop ideas to reduce it, building leadership, and taking part in events in the community, among its efforts completed or to be completed. DH now has six "core" steering committee members, said Cree, and there are 10 people who have been part of the steering committee meetings. The group co-sponsored an "open house" for the Turtle Mountain Suicide Prevention Program. During the Dunseith powwow in August, they served meals to more than 500 attendees and participants. They developed and circulated a community-wide survey to at least 15% of the total population. Cree said that information from the survey and from the US Census will be used for future funding and grant purposes. DH is compiling the survey results to develop a community vision statement that results in solid action on leadership and poverty. Other plans include getting more Dunseith residents involved. Source: Minot Daily News |
| Rape of Refugee Women On the Rise in Chad |
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EASTERN CHAD, AFRICA Refugee women and girls face high levels of rape and other violence on a daily basis both inside and outside refugee camps in eastern Chad, says
Amnesty International (AI) in a recent report and press release. The report documents rape and other violence against women and girls in the camps, who face attacks carried out by nearby villagers and by members of the
Chadian National Army.
"The rape that countless women and girls experienced in Darfur continues to haunt them in eastern Chad," says Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of AI's Africa Program. "These women fled Darfur, hoping that the international community and Chadian authorities would offer them some measure of safety and protection. That protection has proved to be elusive and they remain under attack." The report said that refugee girls also experience sexual harassment at the hands of their teachers at schools in the camps. Some girls have reportedly been threatened that they would receive poor marks if they refused to have sexual intercourse with their teacher, leading some to drop out of school. "Many people know that women who venture outside refugee camps in eastern Chad to collect firewood and water face harassment and rape," said Hondora. "What people don't realize is that there is little safety inside the camps for these same women. They face the risk of rape and other violence at the hands of family members, other refugees, and staff of humanitarian organizations, whose task it is to provide them with assistance and support." The DIS (Détachement Intégré de Sécurité, or, Integrated Security Unit), a Chadian police force supported by the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad, has been given specific responsibility for providing security in and around refugee camps and is now fully deployed, with more than 800 officers in the 12 refugee camps in eastern Chad. However, AI said that members of the DIS have been direct targets of violence and that some DIS officers have even committed human rights violations themselves. Most refugee women and girls, AI said, do not feel that the DIS has done much to address the insecurity they are facing. AI added that perpetrators of rape and other forms of violence against refugee women and girls in eastern Chad are very rarely brought to justice. This is the case even when survivors report rape and other attacks to the local Chadian authorities, the DIS, or to refugee camp leaders. Source: Africanews |
| Habitat Plans Nine New Housing Units in Camden |
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CAMDEN, NJ With a row of golden shovels as a backdrop, housing development officials on Oct 5 heralded a Metropolitan Camden Habitat for Humanity project that will
bring nine brand-new affordable homes to the city's Cooper Plaza neighborhood. More than 60 local dignitaries, state officials, and community leaders gathered at the construction site off 6th St between Royden and Line Sts
for the ceremonial groundbreaking.
"We are really moving a mile a minute in this neighborhood," Monica Leibovitz, director of community development for Cooper University Hospital, told the crowd. Though construction will not begin until December, the announcement was scheduled to coincide with World Habitat Day, an annual event sponsored by the UN General Assembly to promote innovations in affordable housing. The $1.6 million project is funded by the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Authority, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a state tax credit program, and a variety of private donors. Three-bedroom units will be sold for $96,000 and four-bedroom units for $102,000. While that's around market rate for the area, the homes are considered affordable because of Habitat's interest-free mortgages, said Douglass Wagner, executive director of the Metro Camden branch. He said that the two-story, energy-efficient homes will be designed to fit in with the character of the neighborhood and to accommodate disabled residents. Though the homes won't be completed for about a year and a half, he said, families earning 25% to 60% of the regional median income have already been tentatively selected to purchase them. Leah Brown's family is one of the chosen. Brown, 35, said her three children can't wait to move in. "This will be the first time ever for us to own our own home." Habitat has rehabilitated and built 49 homes in the city since 1986. This latest project will be just down the street from seven other units that were built over the past decade. Barbara Lowe, 44, who lives in one of those homes, said she was able to go back to school to become a hospice nurse after she moved in because she could finally afford her housing. "We are going to take back our community, being powerful that we are homeowners," she said. "We have the power to keep the community together." Source: Courier-Post |
| East African Drought Perpetuates Hunger Risk |
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EAST AFRICA As the global financial crisis drags on into another year, East Africa is facing a serious risk of widespread hunger due to the prolonged drought in the region and the substantial decrease in food aid. UN's World Food Program (WFP) declared that about 20 million East Africans need food aid. That's 6 million more than last year.
The drought crisis, which the WFP defined as a "very difficult situation", especially affected the southeast semi-arid regions where the cattle herders are struggling to keep their animals alive. Accordingly, WFP spokeswoman Gabrielle Menezes stated that this is the worst drought since 2000. Last week, WFP executive director Josette Sheeran released a statement appealing for aid donations to prevent severe humanitarian consequences. Sheeran said, "We urgently need an additional $3 billion to meet those needs, which is less than 0.01% of what was put on the table to stabilize the world financially. We think this is critical for the world's peace and stability." Source: Turkish Weekly |
| Bill Cosby Names Honorary Chair of Teacher Program |
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THORNBURY, PA When Bill Cosby once heard a friend complaining about the overgrown, sorry condition of a
Colored Only fountain in the public square during his childhood in the south, the famous entertainer had one question for him: "Why didn't you clean yours up? Why didn't y'all get scissors and someone who knew something
about plumbing? Why didn't you shine it all up?"
Comedian, TV star, and author, Cosby assumed the role of motivator on Sept 21 at Cheyney University (CU) where he was named honorary chairman of the university's Call Me MISTER Teacher Leadership Program (CMM). Founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia, CU is the country's oldest historically black university. In 2008, CU became the first university in the north to establish a MISTER program, which is currently providing college scholarships for 18 young black men pursuing undergraduate and graduate education degrees. In return, they are expected to teach in urban schools, preferably in their hometowns, for the same number of years their education was financed by MISTER. "If we can recruit linebackers, quarterbacks, and point guards, we can recruit third-grade teachers," CMM national executive director Roy Jones told teachers, students, and CU administrators assembled at a brunch to honor Cosby. MISTER stands for "Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models" and was founded 10 years ago at Clemson University in South Carolina, after research revealed a very low rate of black male teachers in the state. Thirty universities now participate. "Every day a child loses his life because there is not a 'mister' there, in my opinion. They're not being reached," said Howard Jean, director of CU's program. "If you don't know who you are, you can't teach anybody." MISTER and another group of scholars have been mentoring students in the Character & Leadership Development Academy, which was established at Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) this summer. Nine fifth- and sixth-grade boys and girls were in attendance at the Sept 21 ceremony. CCCS sixth-grader Semaj Dixon presented Cosby with a gift bag to thank him for his involvement in the CMM program. Cosby peeked in the bag and joked, "Is there any money in there?" Cosby told the CMM crowd, "Your program to arm a male before he gets into the classroom is absolutely correct." He noted that the program prepares teachers for working with children who come with a lot of emotional baggage. "We lose our children -- the insanity that is stagnant is all in the air -- children shooting and killing each other. It doesn't make sense. There's no one home giving them directions and corrections and love." He said that teachers need to connect with parents and keep them informed about their children's gifts. "You don't let up," said Cosby. "You continue because this is going to save lives and make a whole new generation of parents." Source: Norristown Times-Herald |
| # LNN # Small # Hauls # |
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| Life-Net News Extras |
| Camden Tots Part of Global Reading Event |
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CAMDEN, NJ Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar turned into a butterfly more than 65 times in Camden on Oct 8 as volunteers read the children's classic to youngsters at LEAP Academy University Charter School and at a Respond Inc preschool center in North Camden. The read-a-thon, dubbed Read for the Record, was sponsored locally by Rutgers-Camden, which joined about 70 other colleges and universities trying to better a world record for shared reading. Last year, the international campaign set the record with 700,000 readers. This year's goal was take it all the way up to a million.
Read for the Record recruits teachers, parents, community leaders, and college students and puts them in front of preschool and primary-grade tots. It is run by Jumpstart, a national organization that places students into urban preschool programs to build children's literacy, writing, and social skills. Jumpstart was established at Rutgers-Camden two years ago. The Camden site is still Jumpstart's only New Jersey partner. This is the first year that the site participated in Read for the Record, created in 2006. In Camden, 65 volunteers -- including special guests and Rutgers-Camden students and staff -- read to more than 200 children. [Some people, including Life-Net News editor Ret Z, read it twice, thus accounting for how the metamorphosis happened more than 65 times.] Peggy Nicolosi, the state Department of Education's executive county superintendent for Camden County, read another classic, Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon and Stephen Michael King's Henry & Amy to a LEAP Academy preschool class of 3- and 4-year-olds. "Children, you are fantastic. You are learning so much," Nicolosi said as the preschoolers wiggled and differentiated between their left and right feet. "I started as a classroom teacher," she said. "It gives me a boost to be back with kids." Students from the Rutgers-Camden School of Business also volunteered. "It's a way for us to reach out to our community," said senior accounting and management major Thanh Huynh, 20, of Pennsauken. Huynh read Carle's book to a kindergarten class of 5- and 6-year-olds who were already familiar with it. The kindergarteners joined in with Huynh, anticipating every time she read the word "hungry." When the caterpillar added three plums to all his other treats, Huynh commented, "I'd have a tummy ache by then." And when the squirmy critter ate one green leaf and felt much better, she added, "That's why you should eat your vegetables." Julian Figueroa, 5, of Camden, said he knows his colors but can't read yet. He is looking forward to reading, though, "because it's fun." Julian's older sister, LEAP 10th-grader Luz Maria Maldonado, 15, watched as Huynh read another Carle book about cats. Maldonado, who served as an ambassador on Thursday, said she and her mother read to Julian at bedtime. Fifty Rutgers-Camden students involved in Jumpstart helped coordinate Read for the Record. Jumpstart participants devote 12 hours weekly to the program, including training sessions, team meetings, and teacher assistance time in the preschool classrooms. Jumpstart site manager Katie Mills, 28, of Westville, said the program is paying off at LEAP Academy, where it is in its second year, and the city's 19 Respond centers, which were added this year. "The (preschoolers) have developed into students capable of entering schools and succeeding." Source: Courier-Post |
| The Suicide Capital of the World |
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Adapted from a piece by Jason George:
If you know anything about Greenland, you know that it is the world's largest island. You know that it is the least densely populated country on the planet. You might even know that Richie Cunningham spent two seasons of Happy Days stationed here with the Army. Know this, too: Greenland is the country with the world's highest suicide rate. The rate here is 24 times that seen in the US. Even Japan -- a nation with a well-documented suicide epidemic -- has an annual rate of only about 51 people per 100,000 inhabitants. Greenland's is 100 per 100,000. If that statistic isn't sobering enough, there's also the fact that the majority of Greenlanders who kill themselves are teenagers and young adults. (In most other countries, the elderly dominate suicide statistics.) Young men here are especially prone to an early exit and account for more than half of all suicides, although the girls hold their own. In a 2008 survey, one in four young women in Greenland admitted to trying to kill herself. "Every young person in Greenland knows someone who has committed suicide," said Bodil Karlshøj Poulsen, director of Paarisa, the country's public-health center. "It's a new phenomenon." Indeed, for the first half of the 20th century, Greenlanders lived much as they had for the previous 4,000 years: They hunted and fished, clustering in small, remote villages that hug the rocky coastline. They also boasted a suicide rate among the world's lowest. One Danish analysis found that from 1900 to 1930, Greenland had an annual suicide rate of just 0.3 people per 100,000. And "as late as 1960 there was still the occasional year when there were no recorded suicides by Greenlanders," reports Jack Hicks, a Canadian expert on suicide in the arctic region. In 1970, the number of suicides began to rise, and for most of the next 16 years, the rate inched upward. When it peaked in 1986, suicide was the leading cause of death for young people in several towns. Sarfannguit, a fishing community reachable only by dogsled or boat, was one such place. "In the '90s we had a couple of young people who did it," said Sarfannguit's former mayor, Ludvig Sakæussen. Sarfannguit has only about 150 residents. "Depression is bad in the winter, but we're working on our public-health issues, especially for our young people." "Young people in Norway and Sweden make a lot of suicide attempts with pills, but they're not successful," said Poulsen. "Here the kids are successful because it's always so violent." Suicidal Greenlanders employ methods that leave little chance for survival. Shootings and hangings account for 91% of male suicides and 70% of female suicides. Almost every Greenland home has at least one rifle for the annual caribou and musk-ox hunts. Any rope, fishing net, or electric cord can be fashioned into a noose, which in the Greenlandic language is called "our Lord's lasso." Some suspect that Greenlandic teens choose suicide for the same reason young people do almost everything else: because they see their friends doing it. Poulsen blames the country's poverty and high alcoholism and incest rates, but she admits she's just guessing. Peter Bjerregaard from Denmark's National Institute of Public Health has noted that while Greenland's suicide problem began in 1970, almost all the deaths involved people born after 1950. That's the year when Greenland began its transformation from remote colony to welfare state as the Danes resettled residents to give them modern services and tuberculosis inoculations. Hicks said the correlation is present in other Inuit societies as well. Source: Slate |
| 38% of Companies Cut Cash Giving in 2009 |
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USA Business leaders say they remain committed to being good corporate citizens even during the recession, but financial pressures have forced some to cut back on philanthropy and volunteerism, according to a new study by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Hitachi Foundation.
54% of more than 750 business executives surveyed said that corporate-citizenship activities -- including environmental efforts, ethical business practices, treating employees well, and philanthropy -- are even more important during bad economic times than good. But 38% of companies were forced to cut their cash giving this year, according to the study of small, medium, and large businesses. The percentage of businesses contributing products and services dropped slightly, from 65% in 2007 to 60% this year. Those providing volunteering opportunities fell from 64% to 57%. The cutbacks were strongly correlated to a company’s financial performance. Among businesses hit hard by the recession, 59% spent less on philanthropy. Of those whose performance improved, 19% gave away less money, while 63% gave about the same. The rest (18%) gave more. The study, "Weathering the Storm: The State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States 2009," is the fourth of its kind. Mark Popovich, senior program officer of the Hitachi Foundation, in Washington, said the survey results painted "a pretty good story for corporate philanthropy and volunteering," considering the severe economic stress most businesses faced this year. While there is strong support among business leaders for charitable giving and volunteering, he said, it was difficult to maintain cash contributions in the face of plummeting revenues. "Employees may be asking whether we have the money when we're laying off people, when our sales and revenues are down, when we’re cutting back hours," said Popovich. "There are internal pressures." The survey, which was conducted in June by the polling company GlobeScan, found that small businesses were responding differently to the recession than large ones. While they were less likely to lay off workers, small companies (those with fewer than 100 employees) were more likely to cut charitable giving and volunteerism. A company's reputation, and its traditions and values, were cited as the two main reasons for engaging in corporate-citizenship activities. The chief executive now leads a company's efforts to be a good corporate citizen at three-quarters of the businesses surveyed. Companies were more likely to give money, products, and volunteer hours to education, health care, and the environment than to other causes. Source: Chronicle of Philanthropy |
| Desperate Debtors Sell Their Kidneys |
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UK British victims of the credit crunch are offering to sell their kidneys for £25,000 or more to help pay debts, according to the results of an investigation by the Sunday Times, reported on Sept 27. At least a dozen ads had appeared on the Net offering kidneys for sale from British "donors". Five of the sellers corresponded with undercover journalists, who posed as friends and relatives of sick patients to negotiate sales.
One person willing to sell a kidney was a mental health nurse, 26, who said he needed the money to pay debts after a business he set up went bankrupt. Another was a taxi driver, 43, from Lancashire, who wanted to raise cash to pay off some of his mortgage and buy a new kitchen. Both men said they wanted to help those in need of transplants while relieving their own financial difficulties. A leading doctor said the phenomenon highlighted the need for a public discussion of the issue of selling organs. Professor Peter Friend, a former president of the British Transplant Society, said, "The West has outlawed it for all sorts of good reasons, but the result is it goes underground. It is really important to have a debate." Offering to sell an organ in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is an offence under the Human Tissue Act even if the seller is planning to travel to another country for the transplant operation. Nearly 7,000 people in the UK are waiting for kidney transplants. 300 died last year while on the waiting list. William Henderson, the taxi driver, justified his offer to sell a kidney by saying, "I thought I was going to give another man a chance of life. I wanted to help myself at the same time. We are in the middle of a giant credit crunch." He added, "A guy from Pakistan wanted one, but I turned him down. I think he was more buying it to sell it on. I'd rather ... it's got somewhere good to go." Source: Sunday Times |
| Parkside Recovery Outplaces Clients Prior to Move |
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CAMDEN, NJ The New Jersey Division of Addiction Services (DAS) has placed nearly 300 of Parkside Recovery's 530 clients in other programs since the Camden methadone clinic expects to close at the end of the month. Director Raquel Jeffers said on Oct 5 that she is confident her staff will be able to place the remaining clients on an emergent basis by that time. Jeffers also said the state is committed to converting a building within the Broadway Terminal of the South Jersey Port Corp (SJPC) into a replacement clinic.
The state announced in late August that Parkside, a nonprofit drug treatment center located in the 400 block of Broadway, would close in about 60 days, describing the hasty exit as a "mutual decision." The state pays Parkside $693,566 a year for its services. The one-story, windowless building is owned by the state and slated to be sold to Rowan University. Then it's set to be demolished in order to build a four-year medical school in the shadow of Cooper University Hospital. The state has 12 to 18 months to enter into contracts with one or more replacement providers of methadone and buprenorphine. It has set up temporary arrangements with a few existing programs in Camden, Pennsauken, and Monmouth County to fill the gap. By the end of the 12 to 18 months, the state hopes to have a "clear indication" of the status of a lawsuit filed by residents of Waterfront South who oppose a methadone clinic at the port. Until then, the state will not hire a contractor or move forward on an estimated $1.9 million in renovations that are necessary to convert an unused port building into a clinic despite approval in January by the port's board of directors. One of the community groups opposing the move is Heart of Camden. Executive director Helene Pierson said, "We are still in discovery, hoping to prove that the port location was a political decision to help Cooper Hospital's expansion." In addition, Pierson hopes the court will find that the SJPC violated its own bylaws by approving a drug clinic, since all port-owned land is supposed to be set aside for maritime use. Parkside is a subsidiary of NHS, a nonprofit based in Lafayette Hill PA, that operates 580 programs in nine states. It has multiple contracts with the state. Jeffers said that Parkside will continue the needle exchange in Trenton, but Camden's will be replaced. Reassigning clients is complicated, she said, because of their individual needs and the variety of ways in which they pay for services, either through cash, insurance, Medicaid, or Workforce NJ, the employment arm of the Labor Department. Most have been reassigned to Urban Treatment Center, a for-profit center with a nonprofit component on Market Street. Urban Treatment will also take over the operation of the mobile needle exchange program on a temporary basis beginning in mid-November. "We're fortunate to have another center so close by," said Jeffers. "However, the infrastructure is not conducive to quality care on a long-term basis, which is why we need the port." Source: Courier-Post |
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