Marriage Course 2009

"Active Social Assistance" Family Preservation Programmes consists of three legs, namely a Marriage Course, Raising Kids Course & the Finance Course. Experience & research spent in the substance abuse field has proven that kids coming out of a dysfunctional home environment are more susceptible to becoming addicts than others. It has been for this reason that we have implemented and now are offering programmes that are directed at parents & young married or unmarried couples.   

Feeding Scheme

This initiative helps families that are suffering the effects of substance abuse

 

Charity Golf Day
Venue: King David Golf Club

30 April 2010

Hey All Substance abuse and addiction can no longer be ignored, as this pandemic has swept through our communities like a Tsunami destroying families in its path. You or Someone you know has been affected or infected by substance abuse.

The members of "Active Social Assistance" (A.S.A.) has dedicated their lives to transform & empower addicts & families, especially those whom are more susceptible as a result of substance abuse and or consequential abuse of others. It is our mission to capacitate these individuals to the degree that they are enabled to better manage their lives.

Help can be costly & the many people just cannot afford treatment, especially the poorer communities. A.S.A however, has been assisting countless people & has never turned anyone away.

This year, A.S.A is starting off with a Golf Day in aid of raising funds to sustain the programmes (Awareness, early intervention, support groups, individual counselling and family preservation).

We invite you to be part of this family that makes a difference by supporting Our Golf Day fundraising initiative & "live for a purpose greater than yourself".

For more information about this please contact Royston on 073 506 0980 or Lolita 021 706 2000.

4 December -Siva Aalayam

Drug Awareness Collaboration

Despite heavy competition from the 2010 World Cup Soccer draw celebrations taking place in the city that same day and night, my impression was that the event remained very well-attended and supported by the community. Certainly, everyone who attended got an action-packed, informative experience, and much to think about afterwards.

Opening the proceedings was Royston Bennett; who; between the other speakers; described his own descent into a Tik-fuelled hell, which cost him his career, home, temporarily his sanity and nearly resulted in the death of his own wife and child by his  own hand.

It was almost hard to believe that such an engaging, intelligent and very likeable person like Royston could ever had become the single-minded monster he was so eloquently describing, and he really underscored the fact that no one - adult, teenager or child – could somehow be immune from addiction or able to control the effects of drug use, no matter what moral upbringing they came from, or how smart or funny they might be. There was a collective sigh of relief from the audience, as he later described being snatched from the jaws of certain tragedy through both the love and determination of his wife, Lolita, and his own resolve to recover. It was uplifting to hear how he was able to prevail over this shattering event and ultimately become a powerful force for good in the community through the establishment of treatment programmes for addicts and support for families.

Lolita Bennett was a suprise speaker at the event - she was the most surprised, as she had not been expecting to speak! Lolita movingly spoke from the heart about her fight to get Royston rehabilitated, starting from the time the Cape Argus published a letter from her “Tik has taken away my husband and I want him back” (Cape Argus 10/10/2005).

Lolita strikingly used the analogy of people as mirrors, able to shine/reflect light on one another, and pointed out that even shattered mirrors have this ability. Her strength and courage as a woman, wife and mother, in the face of obvious mortal danger, and her decision to publicly seek help was a lesson in love for us all.

Our principal guest speaker, Ellen Pakkies, was next to take the podium. Ellen was convicted in 2008 for the murder of her twenty-year old son Adam, who was addicted to the drug Tik. Instead of imprisonment, Ellen was given the opportunity to serve her sentence through community work, using her life experiences to help others in similar situations to her own.Pensive, with hands clasped protectively over her midsection, Ellen began to dissect her life in vivid, clinical, brutally honest detail, made even more horrifying by her almost matter-of-fact tone, which only occasionally betrayed a hint of heavily-guarded emotions.

Starting with an account of her sexual abuse beginning at the age of four, moving on to being a virtual sex-slave as an adolescent, to describing being gang-raped multiple times, contracting STDs, and being attacked, traumatised and abused by her husband, as well as by her son Adam; Ellen’s story was deeply shocking to us all. The incredible burden of pain that she had carried for so long could only have been excacerbated during the seven years of torment suffered in dealing with her son’s addiction – the savage abuse, continual theft and violence that she described during this period alone would have broken many people, and driven them to desperate acts.

Ellen’s straight-forward description of murdering her son, the bleakness of her thoughts at the time, and the aftermath, were an uncomfortably cathartic climax to everything we had just heard. We all pray that Ellen will eventually be able to enjoy peace and resolution in her life, and thank her for her courage in speaking out so honestly about these issues.

Next on the podium was Police Inspector Ian Bennett, who is the Media Liason Officer and Social Crime Officer serving the Athlone community. As opposed to talking about the actual drugs used and the drug trade, which might have seemed the obvious route for his talk to take, Inspector Bennett instead spoke about our children, and our interaction with them as parents and adults in the community.

Inspector Bennett (Ian), is an extremely quotable and impassioned, capable speaker - I jotted down a few of the many gems he gave out:

“The biggest policing is parenting.”

“If we are not talking to our kids, who is talking to them?” He then answered this question himself with “The guy with the gold chain and the rings, that’s who.”

“One thing that gangsters get right that we as parents don’t, is that they acknowledge our kids”

“We need to talk to our kids in a positive way right from an early age – if we don’t believe in our kids, who will? The gangsters will, that’s who.”

“The difference between being big (grown up), and being adult, is that adults know that they must protect their kids.”

 Editorial by Alan Vesty

20 June 2009 - Clothing Industry Health Care Fund
Follow - up Support Groups

23 May 2009 - Clothing Industry Health Care Fund
Initiating Support Groups in the work place.

Alton Fisher
Chairperson

 Alton originally qualified as a Forklift Technician with two National Technical Certificates in Electronics and Automotive Trade Theory. He quickly realised that he had the skills to start and run his own companies. His first business was a Forklift and Machinery maintenance company after which he also commenced businesses in the Outdoors Medium Advertising, Luxury Foods Supply, Venture Capital Investment Marketing and Financial Services areas as well as setting up a Bakery and a Bread Distribution company.

Alton currently manages a Civil Investigations company called National Asset Recovery Unit that specialises in asset recovery and risk mitigation for large Financial Institutions.

Alton pastors a church in Diep River and is also the Chairman of Active Social Assistance where he not only heads up the organisational side of things but also runs courses in the area of Family Restoration. He also serves as a director of Equip Community Projects and Investments, which seeks to harness enterprise development and corporate social investment contributions.

Alton’s core competencies are in Business Administration, Marketing, developing Business Systems and Information Management Tools but it is his passion for people that drives him to be actively involved in transforming society.

Alton’s favourite pastimes are Adventure Motorcycling and making music as a Jazz Bass player.
Alton lives in Diep River, Cape Town with his wife and their three children.

Ian Bennett

Deputy Chairperson

Ian currently holds the rank of Inspector at Athlone SAPS and has been in service for over 24 years his experience and passion has since grown in and for community developement . He also holds the following portfolios

• Social Crimes officer
• Victim Support Officer
• Support Councilor
• Local & Provincial Spokesperson for SAPS

Ian has always been actively involved in the Substance Abuse Arena networking with Organizations Small & Large, Young & Old Persons hence being one of the Western Cape’s biggest Events Co-ordinator in the Greater Athlone District. Doing Exhibition Awareness, Motivational Talks & bridging the connections between network partners or service providers, always going beyond the call of duty.
Ian lives in Gatesville with his wife Juleen, son Ryan and Daughter Lisa.

Lolita Bennett

Treasurer

Lolita is a strong individual, holding her role as a wife and mother of three children a priority in her life. She has lived all her life in the Athlone area, a community for which her heart is grown fond of.


In 2002 she has been awarded a distinction of 95% in Bookkeeping at Varsity College School of Business & Technology. Lolita is meticulous in her function as Administrator and bookkeeper in the job that she currently holds.

In an unexpected turn, she has witnessed some of her loved ones being enslaved to drugs as a result has affected everyone around them negatively. In her passion to help them she has formed relationships with many organizations who deal with substance abuse and violence against women and children. Lolita has been the guest speaker of many such organizations at events geared to educate and empower individuals. She has also tailored her own short programmes to teach young children life skills as an early intervention method.

She teaches Sunday school lessons at the Church is attends in Diep River.
Some of her other interests are designing and dressmaking and various arts & crafts.

Lolita is not only Treasurer for Active Social Assistance, but also partakes in many of the organisation’s programmes, specifically empowering abused women & children.

Michael Bullock

Secretary

Michael is originally from England, but spent his childhood in Zambia. After gaining a law degree from Warwick University, in 1997 he qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England. He holds a Practising Certificate from the Solicitors Regulation Authority on consults generally on English law. Michael co-founded Mason Bullock Sollicitors in 1991.

In 1997 he resigned his partnership to return to Africa. After a year of voluntary service Michael joined Mason Bullock as a consultant and began MBS Recoveries, a cross border debt recovery practice for South African Banks. In 2001, he founded Paradigm, which now has 6 divisions, Consulting Secretarial, Training, Trust Administration and FMCG Distribution.

In 2005, client demand for comprehensive B-BBEE strategies led to the formation of B Cubed E Squared, a specialist broad based black empowerment consultancy to assist enterprises with strategic transformation. The company is 75% black owned and operates in Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwazulu Natal. Michael lectures on B-BBEE at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business.

Michael is part of Rep, an International transformational consulting network, and a director of Equip Projectswhich handles socio-economic investments. As part of his interest in non profit organisations, Michael sits on a number of governance boards including "Active Social Assistance", a registered NPO working with substance abuse issues.

Michael lives in Sun Valley, Cape Town with his wife Julie. They have two children, Joel and Michaela.

Royston Bennett
Project Co-ordinator

Royston is the heart of the organization, as he lives by the philosophy: “There is no greater love than he who lays his life down for another”. He personally understands the destructive lifestyle of substance abuse. He too suffered through the journey of this lifestyle and most importantly, overcame it. While recovering, Royston witnessed this journey of thousands of other people as well. In fact, many addicts gained control of their addictions, pieced their lives back together, and re-established relationships with their family and friends. His life is a testimony that help is guaranteed when applied.


The joy of being alive, sober and full of limitless potential inspired Royston to setup support groups in various areas and started networking with other organizations and attachment groups, focusing mostly in the poorer communities.

Royston played an integral part in modifying the program’s various concepts over some time now. Initially the program was designed to offer support & teaching tools to addicts & family. The concept further developed to promote and accountably reconstruct the individual and the family into an effective unit. This program encompasses many more healthy and positive activities for addicts and victims of substance abuse including dance and art and recreational activities.

In March 2008, Royston functioned in his role as the Project Co-ordinator, adding an exciting new element in two schools in Hanover Park. The program provided information on drugs and alcohol and educated students on many of the issues that teens regularly face. He also played a major role in setting up the learners of these schools to partake in a mid-year challenge, networking with the Eoan Group, to showcase their talent. This proved to be an absolute success.

Royston’s strong skills is evident in networking with other organizations and over time have formed strong relationships, such as Child Welfare, SAPS, Future Factory, National Prosecuting Authority, etc.

Royston resides in Athlone. He and his wife have three children, Jade, Reece and Ashnah.

Its hard to believe that I was once this victim!!
The journey definitely has not been easy trying to get out of the "pit of hell". How does one cope dealing with the fact that your loved one (in my case my husband) is enslaved to drugs and as a result has become psychotic. In my own strength I tried everything!! - My husband's psychosis made him believe that I was having affairs (with almost every man on the planet) so......I shaved my hair, I tried to get fatter, isolated myself as much as possible from the social scene, I quit my job immediately (I was also the only one working), I tried making myself less significant compared to him (he was very insecure & possessive). Needless to say, I was an emotional wreck and only had my immediate family for support, however they were in a similar state as myself. All my dreams & aspirations had vanished and all I had was memories of what once was - a loving, passionate husband & father - and all I could hold on to was my pain and my anguish. I tried to help him - we went for marraige counselling, family counselling, various substance abuse programmes, until eventually he was admitted to a psychiatric institution. I had nothing more to hold on to, even though we have a daughter who, at the time, was only 4 years old. So I resorted to suicide. No, I did not really want to die - I was hoping that he would see how much I was hurting. He could not see - he loved his drugs more. I, on the other hand was a complete co-dependent, I lived in an unreal world of "what if" and "once before". I crashed..... After nearly four years of living like this I reached out as far as I could imagine and exposed my situation publicly by writing to the newspaper in the hopes of being heard and ultimately to get help for my husband.

.................. to be continued.

Finally, now we can get started!!

I am still new to all this, but here goes......