The Sunshine Project

CUI YADONG

FOR many years Southwest Chi- nas Guizhou Province has been one of the main arteries used by drug traffickers for smuggling their products into and through China. Guizhou borders on the “Golden Triangle” – one of the three biggest opiumproducing areas in the world, and addiction has long been rife in the province. Understandably, fighting the war against drugs is high on the list of priorities of the provincial government.

The Narcotics Control Law, promulgated in December 2007, and the Regulation on Drug Rehabilitation issued by the State Council in June 2011 have established a new paradigm for helping recovering users. A complete and systemic network has been established, which targets physical detoxification, mental rehabilitation and social integration. The new model can be broken down into several main treatment routes: voluntary treatment, community treatment, compulsory isolated treatment and community rehabilitation.

Weaning addicts off their habit and creating a drug-free society were reiterated as a key goal by the provincial government in 2011 with the introduction of a new, community-based treatment policy, the core of which is to bring jobs to recovering drug users. This policy, called the “Sunshine Project,” aims to help rehabilitants obtain stable sources of income, start a new and active life and integrate into society.

“sunshine” enterprises: Providing a new start

According to the China National Narcotics Control Commission, 51.6 percent of recovering users relapse within a month of leaving treatment centers, and 88 percent do so within one year. Its a universal problem and ensuring rehabilitants dont revert to drug use is one of the major challenges confronted by treatment workers. To address one of the root causes of relapse – the recovering userslack of self confidence in their ability to reintegrate into society, the “Sunshine Project” provides jobs that give them a stable income, a place to live and most important of all, dignity and self-respect.

The Sunshine Food Processing Factory in Duyun City is an example of the initiative in action. The 4,000-squaremeter factory is especially set up for drug rehabilitants, providing them with free medication, rooms and lunch in addition to employment. Narcotics rehabilitation officers are involved in both the management and security of the factory. It has also established a strict urine examination system to ensure workers remain clean, and invites doctors to provide free extended treatment. Thus far, the factory has employed over 500 drug rehabilitants.

The Four Seasons Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Sunshine Cooperatives in Liupanshui Citys Shuicheng County focus on providing employment and business opportunities to rehabilitants from the countryside. If ex-users buy a share of the cooperative using their own land as collateral, the government provides them with funds for greenhouses, and local supply and marketing cooperatives subsidize their seed crops, technology purchases and sales. Participants receive dividends as well as a working income. To date, cooperatives have invested over RMB 300,000 and 29 greenhouses in rehabilitants farms. It has also invited technicians to teach best practice farming. While the cooperative agreement specifies the government will allocate funds for building greenhouses and train farmers, the greenhouses will be repossessed if shareholders relapse – the incentives and subsides are only accessible if they stay off drugs.

In addition to the government-funded“sunshine” factories, many normal businesses also provide ex-users with employment, giving them the chance to mingle with ordinary workers. This helps them to master work skills more quickly and return to normal life. Their salaries in these businesses are equal to those of regular workers, and the government subsidizes social welfare costs.

The Sunshine Project is well guaranteed in funds and is listed in the fiscal budgets of provincial, municipal and county-level governments. In 2011, for example, the funds allocated to the project totaled RMB 117 million, including RMB 12.83 million from the provincial government and RMB 2.88 million from municipal governments. For factories employing between 50 and 100 recovering drug addicts, the provincial government will provide assistance of RMB 150,000. For those who hire more than 100 ex-users, RMB 300,000 is provided. Local governments allocate the same amount in both cases. As for treatment costs, the provincial government provides funds to cover methadone, a treatment drug used by rehabilitants enrolled in “sunshine” enterprises.

Diversified Channels for employment

As a part of the Sunshine Project, the government also encourages drug rehabilitants to start their own businesses by providing market information and small loans. Certain public positions are also open to them exclusively.

Xu Xinlong from Zhaigui Village in Tongren City is a successful businessman and a former heavy user. He spent three years in a reeducation-throughwork facility for drug misuse and went through four years of treatment. In 2000 Xu opened a food stand selling breakfast. His business developed step by step, and now he owns two hotels and a laundry service, which employs people with similar life experiences to him. He set up a“smile award,” a hard-working award and an outstanding staff member award to encourage his staff to set personal goals. In the last two years, none of his staff have relapsed.

Zhao Dekai from Xinjiang Village in Suiyang County is another good news story from the project. After being sent for compulsory isolated drug treatment twice, he finally made up his mind to kick his habit. Supported by the Provincial Narcotics Control Commission, he obtained a small loan of RMB 30,000 from a local credit cooperative and set up a home brewery. He went on to found a pig breeding farm and a tobacco plantation, which yielded him a profit of over RMB 200,000 in the first two years. Early this year, together with friends Zhao started the Xinjiang Village Lifeng Crop Farming Cooperative and bought agricultural equipment to which villagers have access free of charge.

With support from the Sunshine Project, many other former addicts are also now succeeding in business, and they in turn are encouraged to provide positions to former users new to recovery.

Some rehabilitants still lack skills, however, and find it difficult to find work. To tackle this issue, Guizhous human resource and social security departments provide them with professional training, a big part of which is vocationally orientated. Specifically, drug addicts can receive vocational training for three months before completing compulsory isolated drug treatment at rehabilitation centers.

Self-employed ex-users enjoy a series of preferential policies such as government subsidies, tax exemptions and reduced-rate bank loans. Low-income drug rehabilitants are included into the minimum subsistence allowance system, and those in poverty can apply for temporary relief. As of June 12 this year, over 9,400 drug rehabilitants have found stable employment, and by the end of the year, 16,000 former drug addicts participating in community drug treatment or community rehabilitation programs are expected to be in work.

Integration into society

Before becoming patients, drug abusers are lawbreakers, but can also be victims. Dealing with addicts is never one-size-fits-all, and individual patients deserve and need personalized care. The philosophy of the Sunshine Project is to respect rehabilitants personalities, help them regain confidence and bring them back into a full and enriching life. A job for them is more than just a job – it helps them with physical detoxification, does wonders for their mental state and integrates them socially.

Preventing relapse is always the first step. Physical treatment rooms are in every Sunshine factory, and doctors provide free methadone treatment and other drug maintenance therapies, every day if necessary, to rid workers of their cravings. Managers know their workersphysical conditions through regular urine tests, and assess their states of mind through regular discussion sessions and home visits. Factories have established connections with workers families, so managers are quick to spot of any sign of relapse.

Thanks to the Sunshine factories, former drug abusers live normal lives, and this gives them the confidence to shake off the feeling of hopelessness that plagues rehabilitants. Work gives them the ability to become good, responsible sons or daughters to their parents, breadwinners to their families and contributors to society.

Now Guizhou has 59 Sunshine companies, and the number is set to rise to about 100 by the end of this year. Many drug rehabilitants have improved immeasurably not only in the way they lead their lives but also in their ability to work. This is being heralded as a big achievement, and the results are telling: since the implementation of the Sunshine Project, the crime rate in Guizhou has plummeted, and the number of drug rehabilitants without relapse in three years has risen to 33,000.

Guizhous Sunshine Project is great proof that community-based drug treatment rehabilitation is the right course of action to better the prospects of drug rehabilitants. Like all of us, they deserve stable jobs on which to build positive, normal lives.