
Vision\| Objectives \| Outreach \| Health \| Values
Vision The Bangladeshi Drugs Project works to enable individuals and communities who are affected by drug misuse and its related effects, to positively change their life conditions to live without drugs, through a combination of individually focused solutions and community level programmes. Nafas is a multifaceted specialist resource established to meet the drug and drug related education, prevention and treatment needs of primarily the Bangladeshi community in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Objectives Treatment / Day Care Programme 1. To establish a culturally sensitive day programme to meet the treatment needs of young Bangladeshi drug users. 2. To increase the number of Bangladeshi young people accessing advice, information and treatment. 3. To provide a youth advisor service for young people based in schools and at Nafas. Drug Education / Prevention 4. To provide culturally sensitive drug education and prevention initiatives to the community through schools, community centres and other organisations. 5. To develop appropriate drug related information materials in English, Bengali and other appropriate languages. 6. To deliver accredited drug education training courses for young people.
Outreach 7. To target young drug users not yet in contact with existing services, to provide advice and information regarding support and services available. Training 8. To provide training and guidance for the benefit of existing service providers and purchasers on the needs of Bangladeshi and Muslim drug misusers, their families and friends. Nafas will act as a resource for the development of training interventions designed to raise the general awareness of other professionals operating in the Borough. Anti-discriminatory practices and effective modes of intervention for Black and Asian communities will feature heavily in this work.
Health 9. To raise awareness regarding HIV/AIDS and other blood borne diseases, mental health, community safety, crime prevention and general health in relation to drug misuse. Government and Local Authority 10. To work as a partner with government and local authorities, at national and local levels, in developing best practice and appropriate services for drug users.
Values 1. Nafas believes in providing high quality and cost effective services to ensure that the public receive best value for money. 2. Nafas believes that in order to provide a truly community based service individuals from the target community must be involved in the development and delivery of services. 3. Whilst methadone has its benefits, it alone cannot be effective as a treatment for Heroin misuse. Nafas believes that prescriptive treatment must be coupled with natural therapies such as shiatsu, talk therapies, acupuncture and so on. As well as this, access to detox programmes and comprehensive aftercare all add towards a whole-istic treatment package. 4. Nafas believes in a partnership approach of working with other agencies in a combined effort to access the best range of treatment and support for clients. 5. Nafas believes it is necessary to ensure that our information is communicated in a manner that is congruent with the religion, culture and languages of our target group. 6. Nafas believes in the empowerment of the Bangladeshi and the wider community through dissemination of user-friendly information and training. 7. Nafas believes that the community has the right to factual information about drugs and their impact on society. 8. Nafas understands drugs and drugs misuse from an interconnected and interdependent standpoint and not in isolation from other factors that also impact on individuals and the society. 9. Nafas believes that given appropriate support and knowledge, every individual has the capacity to overcome addiction and dependency on drugs. 10. Nafas believes that a drug user's family, parents, relatives or friends can form an important support structure in the process of treatment. 11. Nafas believes that in order to be truly Whole-istic, our service must consider the whole person physically, psychologically and spiritually within the context of self, family, common-unity and society. 12. Nafas believes that service development should be informed by the economical, social, political, historical, psychological and spiritual experiences of the target communities.