Unpacking the Servers

What an exciting day for us as we began unpacking (Above Wesley and Jason showing some love to the servers)the servers that will support the Advice Support work. The servers were sponsored by the DELL South African Development Fund and the impact it will have on our services reaching out to people in need is massive.

Drug Advice Support (DAS): Why we do what we do

Wherever we go to share the story of Drug Advice Support people always ask why are we doing what we are doing and what is our payment. People are amazed that this is a community initiative that has been running since 2008 and touching the lives of thousands of people. Just reading the messages below encourages us to persevere and not give up knowing we are seeing more lives being reconstructed.

[2009-05-28 17:49:17] User: Hi dare n hey i wnt 2 thank u abt ur wrds nw im proud of wht i am n al the suicidal thoughts r gone keep up da gud wrk.

[2009-06-01 17:23:32] User: Just thought i'd let you guys know i've been clean for a month now - thanx for the help!

With thousands of people having their lives transformed through such a noble service we know that we cant stop what we are doing but only look for ways to improve what we've started.

Firstly, a special thank you to all the men and women who are sacrificing their lives for the sake of others. To the people from the community who support this initiative sharing their resources (plate of food, a note of thanks, hot cup of tea/coffee for advisors and people at Impact centre) your contributions are priceless, Impact Direct Ministries for allowing us to utilise your space and resources, to the team of developers who along with the community are breaking new ground as we journey together you are changing many lives, to DELL South Africa Development Fund for their generous sponsorship your donation is priceless.

Dell SA Development Fund coming to our rescue

Last week Friday DELL SA Development Fund came to our rescue by delivering our Servers and laptops for the Drug Advice Support project. This donation means that we can extend our service hours now from Monday to Thursday (4-6pm)and Saturday (4-6pm). The Athlone Living Lab (ALL) would like to thank DELL SA Development Fund for this contribution that would make a difference in the lives of many individuals who are impacted by the scourge of substance abuse.

First Week with the new Drug Advice Support (DAS)

Today was the first week with our new DAS hours and it was interesting to see the number of conversations and users who were seeking support for substance abuse or social related issues. The new DAS hours of operation are Mondays to Thursdays and Saturdays 4 to 6pm. The following were the number of users per day for this week:

Monday: 93 users
Tuesday: 114 users
Wednesday: 86 users
Thursday 101 users
Saturday 59 users

The number of users serviced this week were a total of 453 users. The numbers were lower than our normal average per day but the conversations were more meaningful as we had a number of serious users who were in desperate need. The new hours are all thanks to the DELL South African Development Fund's donation that we received last week.