Taking care on the street

ADRA–Australia is changing lives and transforming communities, reports Candice Jaques.

I’ve had a struggle with trying to fit into life,” said Anthony James. “. . . of trying to solve the heartache of carrying this burden of abuse around.” Anthony, 43, suffered terrible abuse as a child, and continued to suffer as an adult. Not understanding his struggle, he had entered the addictive trap of alcohol and drugs. When he tried to get help, he had little success. Constantly moving in abusive circles, he considered ending everything. When his girlfriend and baby were recently shot, he decided he didn’t want to live anymore. Seeing his need, a concerned friend introduced Anthony to an ADRAcare community centre.

ADRA–Australia’s ADRAcare community centres assist many people, in various ways. Some ADRAcare community centres facilitate employment training and youth-at-risk programs. Others distribute government funds for paying electricity or phone bills. And others still, like the one Anthony visits, act as referral sites for the homeless or people with addictions.

“So far it’s been absolutely 100-per-cent perfect,” says Anthony, on describing his involvement with the Blacktown ADRAcare Community Centre, in western Sydney. “They’ve got a loving, caring atmosphere.”

For most addicts the only support base they have is other addicts, making it almost impossible for them to leave the addiction trap. ADRAcare community centres seek to change this in two ways. First, they create a supportive environment for people and, second, they provide counselling to help them recognise the causes of their addictions. “We’ve created a whole new support base in the community that [Anthony’s] from,” explained David Haupt, manager of the Blacktown centre.

Having received immediate grief counselling from ADRAcare, Anthony continues counselling to focus on the issues that led to his addictions. He has learned a lot and is now drug and alcohol free. Having identified literacy as a problem, Anthony is currently taking reading and writing classes at the ADRAcare community centre. He has also told others of the great help he has received. “I’ve got a list of people who want to come already!” he reports.

The Blacktown community centre is just one of over 120 ADRAcare projects operating throughout Australia. These projects also include street programs, counselling centres, op-shops, refugee assistance programs, job skills training, women’s and men’s refuges, youth-in-crisis programs and outlets for material relief. ADRAcare also has a corporate partnership with Sanitarium and has provided immediate aid for victims of Australia’s worst bushfires, floods and droughts. Cricketers Brett and Shane Lee support the work of ADRAcare with their involvement in ADRA’s New Day Foundation program, which offers cutting-edge assistance to youth in crisis.

Through these kinds of projects, ADRAcare seeks to benefit those in need in the Australian community. “A lot of people like myself are trying to find out the answers to problems,” Anthony says. “And you can’t find them yourself.”

ADRAcare projects run primarily through the work of volunteers who are doing their part to make Australian communities better places to live. A lot of Anthony’s healing has come from mixing with the many volunteers at the ADRAcare community centre. “They don’t lack in effort—in trying to help you,” he says.

ADRAcare is the national program of the international Adventist Development and Relief Agency–Australia (ADRA). Realising that every person is valuable and deserves the opportunity of reaching their full potential, ADRA–Australia initiates and supports programs that bring positive change to people’s lives, such as the community centre Anthony connected with. “I want to encourage this system—this organisation,” he says, “because I truly believe in it.”

ADRA’s international projects address development in six main sectors: food security; water and sanitation; health; education; economic development and work; and disaster relief. This broad focus means that while ADRA–Australia supports dairy farming in the highlands of Kenya it is also helping to build tube wells in Cambodia at the same time as teaching HIV/AIDS awareness in PNG.

Through its many national and international programs, ADRA–Australia is changing lives and transforming communities. And Anthony agrees: “I’ve been quite happy,” he says. “I know I’m in good hands.”