NGO: Revival (Preporod) – Association for fighting substance dependence disorders, Niksic
Project title: BRIDGE
Amount granted: € 16,300.00
Revival is a young organization, established three years ago with a mission to provide support to substance addicts, primarily psychoactive substance addicts, in “getting out of vicious circle of drugs”, as Jovan Bulajic, the founder and director of Revival puts it. Jovan was a drug addict himself, who spent 2 years in a rehabilitation center in Belgrade. Knowing how tough the road to recovery was for himself, Jovan wanted to “be there for others with the same problem”, aware that his own experience can be valuable. And that’s how Revival came to life in 2006 – with a lot of enthusiasm and commitment, and some skills and knowledge, based on personal experience. And it was BCIF Montenegro office (now fAKT) to be the first donor to recognize importance of this initiative (some would say “and take a risk at the same time!”), when Preporod knocked on our doors, to ask for our understanding and support in early 2007. First through a small grant of € 4000, and then through another grant of € 16,300.00 awarded in December 2008, our support enabled Revival to provide psycho-social support and counseling to at least 100 addicts and their families, mostly from Niksic and Podgorica, but also from other parts of the country. At least 80% of the addicts who used services provided by Preporod, started long-term treatment and rehabilitation process.
When talking about their work, Preporod activists most often say that their primary role is to “motivate addicts in bringing a decision to start a long-term rehabilitation process”, in one of the centers throughout the region, that Revival cooperates with – including RETO Center, set-up less than 2 years ago near Podgorica Role of the family is also a very important one, so counseling is often organized with family members (at the same time, it happens very often that the first phone call to Preporod is made by a family member of a drug addict). The project BRIDGE has reached almost 100 drug addicts who have been provided services, and almost 300 family member; through this project, about 65000 citizens of Montenegro received a leaflet on Revival work and services they offer, a leaflet that was inserted in the most popular daily newspaper for free.
Preporod has also achieved important growth in these 3 years: from an aspiring organizations with only enthusiasm and good will, to an organization that gave important contribution to the development of the National Strategy for Fighting Substance Abuse, organization whose good work and results have been recognized by relevant state institutions, renown experts in the field of substance abuse, UNODC which invited them to the World Forum on Drugs held in Sweden last year, to other NGOs; and organizations whose opinion is sought for, and whose voice makes a difference to public – which was clearly shown in a couple of live TV shows, when the viewers kept calling to praise the work of the organization, or ask for help. And of course, it keeps being an organization of enthusiastic, committed individuals – otherwise, their mission would be mission impossible.