I recently turned forty and did the math on my life. It terrified me.
I was introduced to drugs at age twelve.
Sold them by sixteen.
I spent my twenty-first birthday in a meth lab.
For nineteen years, I used IV meth every day.
I have been high more days of my life than sober, and I probably have fewer days left than the ones already behind me.
However, this also translates to vast experience and knowledge on drugs, harm reduction and recovery systems. I understand how policy, stigma, and untreated trauma shape reality.
And I can appreciate the nuance and complexity of every substance user I meet.
Twenty-eight years!
I refuse to believe it was all for nothing.
The last 7 years, I have been studying. Obsessively.
I now hold 19 certifications in harm reduction, addiction care and treatment, traumatology, somatics, gender justice and related fields; from institutions including the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine and the Humanitarian Leadership Academy.
I was invited to present my research at the first African Law Enforcement and Public Health Conference in 2024.
But my résumé reads like a foreign language to the local bureaucracy.
In South Africa, none of it is recognised without IC&RC registration.
{ …Now I pass the proverbial hat, hoping the song-and-dance didn’t feel like a hostage situation… }
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I’m raising funds to cover the $1,454 cost for ACCSA Addiction Counsellor certification, here on BMC and via CrowdGift on YouPay. Your support will help me register and complete this required step.
https://youpay.me/DopeDoula/fund/accsa-addiction-counselor-certification
It’s all I need to continue the work I already do in a formal capacity, with the bonus of being able to eat.
♡ If you can help, you rock my pebble collection!
If you can’t, please share this note. ♡
(and keep me in mind the next time someone insists that people don’t change.)
♡・⛧・⚸
Gratitide.
Always.
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