EDITORIAL COMMENT

I write my editorial in the heart of New Delhi in India. This is a city where 24 million people live.

Spending the last two weeks in this vast country I have become aware of the desperation of millions of its people, a people who struggle to survive each day within the muck, heat and sweat of their labour.

In this edition of Edges we will listen to their plight. As we go to print I am in the process of initiating several meetings with my advisors as we look at the possibility of T.H.O.M.A.S. developing an international wing to its work. I believe we cannot forget that we are part of a global family. With the advancement of technology we are more intimately connected and humanely conscious of the life-beat of the world.

Our organisation is in a tremendous position to reach out with a helping hand. With over 1,000 sponsors from all over the UK we can make a difference. I ask you to walk with me and support me as I continue to construct an organisation that I believe has an outstanding contribution to make in the world of marginalisation.

Back home in the UK, we continue to help many people escape from the nightmare of drug addiction and marginalisation. On November 5th 2000, we presented several awards to young people who have turned away from drugs and are building new lives. These young people came to us virtually on the brink of death. We have managed to ignite within them a desire to turn their lives around. The smile on their faces says it all.

As I have said in the past, I often compare the work of the T.H.O.M.A.S. Organisation to an intensive care unit. Drugs debilitate the whole fabric of your being; our task is to resuscitate people and bring them back to life. This is achieved through our reach-out work in our drop in centre, through the therapeutic programmes in our residential care and the training programmes we operate. Our aim is to try to reintegrate people back into mainstream society.

Everyone has potential. Our task is to help people discover that potential which can often be hidden beneath the weeds of their histories. Coming through our door each day are two groups of people. One group is struggling desperately, they lack the motivation for rehabilitation and we walk with them as they continue to experience the captivity of their addictions and the hostility of their society. Such people are just existing. They are not living. Their faces are nauseated and their condition is frail. They have no direction or purpose. Each day we provide them with a hot meal. The other group is a people who are wanting to change their lives. This is the group that I compare to an intensive care unit. They are coming back to life and are an inspiration to those who still can't face the challenge to change .

In January we are setting up a new training unit were we hope to work with up to 50 people in the next sixth months, providing them with opportunities to embrace the world of work. I plead with you to continue to support us with your financial donations. I make a special appeal for India this New Year.