In the beginning, it was fun to partake in alcohol consumption – it represented good times with friends. He went on to get married and got two children who are currently in their teenage years. However, over time started to consume more and more drinks in each session. This continued to a point where he started to lose friends and strained his relationship with relatives. He would spend all the money that he earned to buying drinks. As a result he could not cater for the needs of the family nor hold a job. At first he lost his job first as a restaurant manager in Narok and later for the county government of Narok as he would be absent frequently and could not effectively work. At home, his relationship with his wife broke down; eventually she left together with their children. 

It was at that point that his sister noted that things were not ok with him. She took him in her house hoping he would stop taking too much alcohol although she did not know how to achieve this goal. She reached out to two people who had benefitted from the Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and they told her about St. Martin. A screening and assessment was conducted by the addiction counselor who placed him in the waiting list for the IOP. In the meantime, they started with counseling sessions where he demonstrated the desire to change just that he needed the guidance on how to stop drinking. Later, on he successfully completed the IOP sessions attending all the sessions. He has since taken steps to take back control of his life by engaging in agricultural activities like planting vegetables for sale. The programme supported him to start a chicken rearing project to supplement income from the crop farming activities.   He also reconciled with his wife and has since taken responsibility for his children like paying school fees. He is determined to sustain recovery by continuing to attend monthly support group meeting together with other recoverees.

Our reach in 2022

In 2022 we….

  • Trained 113 Volunteers, 39 youth leaders, 35 chiefs, 33 village elders, 21 recoverees, 86 people with mental illness & their significant others 
  • Created awareness to approx 15,000 people in community gatherings, welfare groups, chiefs baraza etc
  • Offered counseling to 319 people, residential rehabilitation to 10 peopleintensive outpatient rehabilitation 26 people
  • Support to access psychiatric treatment through payment of consultation fees and purchase of medicine to 136 people, payment of NHIF premiums to 12 people