Drug rehab program more ‘Carrots,’ less stick

TURNING A NEW LEAF In Caloocan City, drug dependents are taking a novel path to recovery during the pandemic, selling fresh produce to neighbors and friends. It helps them stay sober and preoccupied while earning a living for their families. —KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING

MANILA, Philippines — They’re moving from crystal meth to “Carrots.”

In Caloocan City, once known as a killing hotspot under President Duterte’s war on drugs, users wishing to kick the habit are encouraged to enroll in a six-month program called Carrots (or Community Assisted Recovery and Rehabilitation Training Services).

Many of the graduates emerge clean, ready to take on a new lease on life. And the COVID-19 pandemic has given them opportunity to do exactly that: by selling carrots—and other vegetables and fruits grown by local farmers—to their neighbors and friends.

The program, called “BuyAnihan Palengke,” is part of Carrots’ aftercare projects for the graduates. It was launched by the city government and the Diocese of Caloocan in partnership with FoodPanda.

How it works

Now running for 11 weeks, it’s partly inspired by the Maginhawa community pantry to which people gave what they could for others to take what they needed. It gives the graduates a chance to make good, even to make a small living.

The humble market is based at the Our Lady of Grace Parish in Caloocan and is run every Saturday by at least 20 Carrots graduates, according to program supervisor Skeeter Labastilla-Turgut.

The graduates take orders of fruits and vegetables from their neighbors and friends every Thursday, which Foodpanda secures from upland farmers.

They do not shell out capital; all they do is sell the produce and earn commissions. The initiative helps not only the graduates but also the farmers hard hit by the pandemic, says Turgut.

‘Anna’ and ‘Kaye’

Those running the market say they have also been given the chance to reestablish lost connections with friends and relations.

Among those running the “palengke” is “Anna,” a 47-year-old mother who, along with her partner, was listed in the government’s “Oplan Tokhang” program in 2016.

Her partner was killed by unidentified gunmen in July 2017 while he was outside their home with their two children. Greatly shaken, Anna sought refuge in the church to protect herself and her children.

Recovering was not easy, she recalls. Even as she tried to get clean, her neighbors and friends were distrustful and accused her of being insincere and a “menace” to the community.

“But when they saw how I persevered for six months, to surrender myself to the church and to get sober, I slowly regained their trust, and they began seeing me as part of the community again,” she says.

The same was true for another mother, “Kaye,” 31. She and her husband were also listed in the city government’s list of drug users after a relative told on them, yet unaware of how deadly the campaign would turn out in later years.

Both women surrendered to the Diocese of Caloocan in 2016, and eventually enrolled in the Carrots program.

‘Our hospital’

Their journey was similarly difficult: No one “wanted to help us,” Kaye says. “They thought we were frauds and just wanted to save our skin.”

“Honestly, it was like the church was our hospital. It was the first to embrace us at a time when we had no allies,” she says.

The two Carrots graduates are still under the watchful eye of the Diocese and the city government.

Since October, they have kept the BuyAnihan market running along with other Carrots graduates. Every Thursday, they knock on their neighbors’ doors or text their friends, asking for orders of fruits and vegetables.

It is they who personally deliver the produce to their “clients.” They say the project has earned them at least an extra P500 every week.

“It has also helped keep us sober by giving us an alternative livelihood,” says Kaye.

Her colleagues at the law firm where she now works as part of the administrative staff rib her as “a bona fide online seller,” Kaye says, laughing. But apart from the money, “this initiative is important to us because it keeps our mind busy,” she says.

Changed impressions

Besides the market, says Anna, donation drives for those heavily affected by the pandemic are another activity for Carrots graduates. They often give the unsold produce to their neighbors for free, she says.

“We want to change their first impressions of us. If before, they saw us as a nuisance, now we are the ones helping the community,” Anna says, adding:“Now they see that we’re trying our best, and that we have not wasted the second chance we were given.”