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As a person’s psychological resilience
weakens, his or her need to hold on to
something increases. The addiction
industry exploits this need, and
introduces addictive substances to
societies and people as an effortless
and easy short-term solution. At
the same time, borders have been
lifted, the Internet has spread around
the world and many other such
developments have occurred, and
as a result, addictive substances
have very quickly become easily and
inexpensively accessible. Naturally,
the problem of addiction has quickly
become a larger problem. In this sense,
every institution and organization,
but especially NGOs, have important
responsibilities in the fight against
addiction. If NGOs are to succeed, the
public must adopt them and actively
support them in their struggles.
You mentioned that there are very
important tasks to be assumed by
NGOs in the fight against addiction.
Canyou tell us about GreenCrescent,
as one such NGO, and inform us
about its approach to addiction?
Green Crescent is a 100-year-old,
well-established NGO engaged in the
fight against addiction. Sometimes,
the long history of an institution may
serve as a disadvantage, resulting
in slow, cumbersome bodies that
fail keep up to date. Despite being
a 100-year-old institution, Green
Crescent has avoided this trap, and
has realized many innovative and
exemplary projects in the national
and international arena in the fight
against addiction around the world.
It became a pioneering NGO in adding
technology addiction, one of the most
significant problems of our time, to its
field of study.
Today, we are working on five
important areas of addiction – alcohol,
cigarettes, tobacco, technology and
gambling. As Green Crescent, our
approach to addictions is as follows:
Once a person becomes addicted, the
related treatment and rehabilitation
processes are very costly to society,
including material, psychological and
moral losses. In psychology, we refer
to the “lost years” concept , referring
a the period of life lost by a person
when they become an addict that they
cannot recoup. Time that could have
been invested in self-development,
making use of talents and gaining
experiences is lost to addiction.
Most importantly, addicts lose hope,
confidence and excitement about
themselves and their future. We, as
Green Crescent, strive not to let anyone
lose sight of the value of humanity
in the grip of addiction. Of course,
addiction has multidimensional, non-
ignorable impacts on the state and
society, leading to economic losses,
social problems and crime, however,
we basically consider all of these
consequences as years, excitements
and hopes that a person has lost. These
losses not only affect the addict, but
also humanity as a whole. Therefore,
although we keep an eye on scientific
research and statistics on addiction,
the basic data for us is not figures, but
the number of people we manage to
save. For this reason, all our efforts and
struggles aim to ensure that people
are never caught in addictions, and
are able to protect themselves against
lifestyles that encourage addiction.
What prevention and rehabilitation
activities has Green Crescent
conducted so far in its fight against
addiction?
We, asGreenCrescent, put intopractice
the Fighting Against Addictions
Training Program of Turkey, developed
as a result of the great efforts of
our scientists who have spent
considerable time on preparation
works. In cooperation with the
Ministry of National Education, every
year we provided accurate information
about addiction to a total of 10 million
children and young people attending
elementary, middle and high school
in all 81 provinces of Turkey. We
continue to provide and disseminate
basic but accurate information
about addictions to as many people
as possible through our cooperation
with such official institutions as the
Presidency of Religious Affairs, the
Ministry of National Defense, local
administrations and various NGOs.
In addition, as Green Crescent, we
have developed an Addiction Response
Program for Schools to help young
people who have already started to
use addictive substances, but who
have not yet become addicts. Through
this program, we aim to protect young
people who are at risk, and help them
to return to a lifestyle where they can
act completely independently.
In addition to providing information
to non-addicts and implementing
a support program for those who
have already set out on the path of
addiction, we have also developed a
program to help our young people and
children acquire the necessary skills
to ensure that they can take a firm and
sound stance in the face of addiction,
being aware that these skills are
among the most important factors in
the fight against addiction. We have
prepared the Green Crescent Life Skills
Program and will start to implement it
soon.
We, as Green Crescent, strive not to let anyone lose the value of
humanity in the grip of addiction.
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