It was started in 1989 by a group of young men following the death of their friend from a drug overdose, with the help of the Father Guy Njeim who is the current president. The first rehabilitation center was opened in Feytroun with 12 residents. Today, there are two centers, one in Sheile for boys and another one in Fatka for girls.

Objectives and Services

Oum El Nour team is composed of counselors, ex-drug addicts, psychologists, social workers, socio-cultural workers, psychotherapists, recreation therapists, doctors and lawyers. It offers multiple and continuous training internships in different countries such as Italy, USA, Canada and France. It also participates in international conferences for the fight against drugs such as those held by the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions/ conseil international sur les problèmes de l’alcoolisme et des taxicomanies and the World Federation of Therapeutic Communities.

Oum El Nour works on:

• Raising awareness on the psychological, health and economic risks of drugs on individuals, particularly amongst the young.
• Welcoming drug addicts and assisting them in defining priorities to overcome their addiction.
• Supporting parents and accompanying them in helping their children undergo treatment and prevention.

It offers five services: reception, rehabilitation, outpatient follow up, parental guidance program and prevention.

Reception aimed for both family and individual counseling and orientation, psychological and socio medical assessment and admission into treatment after detoxification. This is achieved by hospital detention or prison follow up or by private and confidential interviews.

Rehabilitation improves the patient’s ability to function, minimize the medical and social complications of drug abuse and re-enter mainstream society. This is achieved through an inpatient program lasting from 12 to 18 months in 4 stages, group therapy and individual follow up and medical, psychological and spiritual support.

Outpatient follow up ensures social reintegration and prevents relapses. Both individual follow up and group therapy are encouraged.

Parent’s guidance program offers support for family members; exchanges experiences between families; clarifies the problems and the means to solve them and establishes clear relationships between parents and children. This is achieved through group support and home visits.

Prevention enhances social awareness, involvement and participation, spreads appropriate information on substance abuse and design prevention programs. This is achieved through conferences, meetings, seminars, anti-drug campaigns and specialized libraries.

Oum El Nour endeavors to set up programs to welcome, guide, accompany and follow drug addicts. It also works on building a skilled staff able to comprehend and apply the latest scientific tools and methods, as well as to adapt them to the Lebanese society. This is achieved through a genuine spirit of interaction, communication and sharing with all the parties concerned: international and governmental entities, local communities, NGOs, etc

Statistics

From 1993 until 2012, Oum El Nour has welcomed 4,879 cases, 89.1% of whom are male compared to only 10.9% females. The evolution of the number of welcomed patients at Oum El Nour throughout the years is detailed in the following table:

Source: Om El-Nour

In 2012, 374 cases were welcomed by Om El Nour for treatment and rehabilitation. These were mainly addicted to the use of cocaine powder (78.2%), marijuana (herbal) (73.3%) and heroin (72.8%). Patients aged 23 years constituted 14% of the total number of patients for that year, followed by those aged 19 years (9%).

It is noteworthy that the highest number of drug addicts admitted to Oum El Nour was in 2011 and reached 440 patients.

Funds

Oum El Nour funds essentially come from national and international donations offered either as cash or in kind by individuals, private and public institutions as well as from the agreements signed with the ministries of public health and the social affairs.