01 December 2014 - Anne Babb, General
Secretary of IFBC shares some thoughts on World AIDS Day
It is in the hands of each country and each Government to
reduce alcohol related harm. There are overall about 1
million crimes reported annually around the world and 30%
of these are directly linked with alcohol consumption.
Sadly alcohol consumption often leads to situations that
cause harm to others. The trouble is that when alcohol
acts as a depressant, many negative thoughts come to
surface and may result to actions that would not have
surfaced without alcohol. This then leads to new emotions
that may cause irresponsible behaviour such as violent
outbursts or...
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03 September 2014 - There was a Blue Sea
Film festival in my local town this weekend. They showed
many short films and other films that have received merits
around the world. I managed to take time to see one film:
Thousand Times Goodnight. It describes the story of a
mother who works as a war reporter and she travels abroad
to areas of conflict whilst her husband works at their
home town and looks after their children. After a serious
injury in a bomb blast she tries to quit her job and
return back to home. She realises for the first time how
much her family fear for her well being whilst she is
away. She has a deep battle of emotions because she has a
great...
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10 April 2014 - There was a new shopping
area built to a small town. Until then, all shops in town
closed at 6pm, but within this bigger shopping area shops
were open later and the coffee shops even till 11pm. All
of a sudden, teachers noticed that children between the
ages of 12-16 seemed to be more tired at school than
normally. At that moment, there were no special events in
town that would have led young people to stay up very late
– so, what was the cause of this sudden tiredness?
It went on for a while and then the local shop keepers
approached the school. They asked the headmaster to
request the pupils not to crowd the foyer of the
shopping...
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25 March 2014 - Birthdays received a
completely new meaning to me when my first son was born.
Until then birthday was a nice celebration and a reason to
see my friends. Once my children were born, I realised
what a miracle it is that we are all born fully equipped
for the life ahead of us. We are all a miracle exactly as
we are, with our own individual characteristics and
differences. We need care when we are little but step by
step we become more independent. Many people who recover
from addiction call the day when they have stopped
substance abuse their new birthday. They often celebrate
this and reflect back to remember what a blessing it is to
live a...
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10 March 2014 - A young couple, both 19
years old, lived in a homelessness hostel. They both
suffered from heavy drinking and misuse of prescribed
drugs. For two years I supported them in working on their
addiction and in building sufficient life skills in order
to help them move to their own home. The girl fell
pregnant and they had to be rehoused quickly to provide a
safer environment for the baby. Being a young woman
without education, with very poor literacy and numeracy
skills, and without family back up, this girl was very
vulnerable and in danger of loosing her child. The couple
tried to live independently with resettlement support. But
shortly...
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27 February 2014 - I have been working in
the field of addiction related services for 16 years.
Throughout this period, I have had to analyse my own
attitudes towards what is right or wrong. Let me explain
the challenge I face. In my first job, I provided support
to drug addicted people who were in the process of moving
from homelessness to supported housing. Heroin, Cocaine,
Cannabis, etc. are illegal drugs and the way the users
fund their habit was mostly illegal (prostitution,
thieving, begging…). On top of this they used many
other substances including alcohol and prescribed
medicine. With my values, I was asking myself why all
these illegal things...
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28 January 2014 - The International Blue
Cross works in 43 countries world-wide. This brings me the
challenge of paying attention to regional needs. During
2013, we focused on producing tools and manuals for our
African Blue Cross organisations so that they can work on
the important issue of alcohol policy development, provide
quality self-help services, and start effective
life-skills programmes for young people. This year, we
will continue working on these themes. However, I want to
stop for a moment to discuss the situation in Europe.
Europe has 17 Blue Cross organisations. Most of them
provide a variety of professional treatment, counselling,
and...
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