Reformed Himself, Helping Others Reform

April 5, 2010 7:00 am

Article originally posted at Karmayog.org

For several months, he had been concealing from his employers that he was a drug user. Then, when he thought it was impossi ble to veil the truth any longer, he spilled the beans. To his immense surprise, his superiors at Oxfam India perceived his problem with empathy and urged him to seek advocacy from Sevadhan, a drug abuse treatment centre. After being perfectly sobered, he made a fresh beginning by resuming work, at the same job. A few months later, he broke some more bad news to his employers. This time, he was quitting his job for good. To return to Sevadhan, not as a patient this time but as a consultant, to improve the lives of those who were lost, as he had once been, on a terribly dark path.

It has been 25 years now since Eldred Tellis (48) decided to devote his life completely to serve thousands of drug users and substance addicts. Today, he is internationally recognised for his understanding of scientific and psychological techniques used in reforming drug users. Every month, the affable Tellis makes a trip abroad to teach various groups of activists the healing methods he has worked with.

Treatment for substance abusers in India is far more advanced in India than in other Asian countries, he says, explaining how his work has taken him into the homes of drug users as far as Malaysia, Iran, Myanmar, Thailand and Bangladesh.

In Mumbai, Tellis runs his own non-governmental organization, the Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust. He provides services through drop-in centers, where any patient can come to seek medical care. He works with volunteers who reach out in areas, like railway stations, where drug users are expected to be located.

His biggest motto: “Do not coerce the drug user to change his pattern if he does not wish to. Just provide the unconditional help he wants from you and make at least that slight improvement in his life”.

Every volunteer in Sankalp now adheres to this principle. “In every drug user, the level of tolerance, determination and conviction is different. I got completely sobered in three months, somebody might take five years and somebody else might not even wish to alleviate,” justifies Raju Padwekar who supports Tellis as a volunteer for Sankalp.

Tellis is glad that his family has been supportive. “We are very happy with the work he is doing. If his work gives him satisfaction and happiness, what more could we wish for,” says Father Joaquin Tellis, Eldred’s elder brother.

Tellis has also worked in the north-eastern states, a project he feels has made substantial difference to the lives of people there. “They consider me almost like a godfather,” he says. Apparently, when most reformers simply chalk out a development programme for drug users there without ensuring its implementation and leave within a day, Tellis actually stayed there among HIV-positive drug users for over two months.

After returning to Mumbai, he observed that the number of HIV-positive drug users here was almost as high as in the north-east and immediately incorporated in Sankalp special treatment for them.

Recently, Tellis was awarded a fellowship from the Ashoka Foundation. “We award those social entrepreneurs whose innovative techniques have made considerable social change and who can work together as fellows to serve society. Mr Tellis rightly fits into our criteria because of the noble work he has done in the north-east and other areas,” says Devashree Mukherjee, director of Ashoka