READING DUO AWARDED FOR TACKLING DRUG USE

Two Reading men who set up an initiative to aid drug users from the ethnic
minority community were rewarded in November for their work. Shahid Farid,
32, and Urfan Azad, 28, both former users, set up Black and Asian Services
in Alcohol and Narcotics (BASIN) in 2006. The men were crowned community
champions at the Pride of Reading Awards, with TV star Chris Tarrant
presenting the awards.

The Berkshire West Primary Care Trust funded initiative was designed to
cater for addicts from the Black and Asian community who tended not to use
some of the more mainstream services available.

The duo carried out a Home Office and sponsored research which showed a
strong level of stigma attached to being a drug user in the Asian
community, and a certain mistrust of "conventional services".

Farid told The Muslim News that receiving the Reading Evening Post
sponsored award was very important as it would help eliminate the stigma:
"As both myself and Urfan are ex-users, we feel very strongly about
publicising the issue; we have to remove the stigma attached to tackling
drug use among the Asian and Muslim community."

Speaking to The Muslim News about and the initiative, Azad said, "Asian
youths did not trust conventional services because they are not catered to
meet their special needs; that's why BASIN was created."

Azad stressed that the uniqueness of the project was its flexible ability
to cater for the individual needs of the users, adding: "We offer support,
mentoring and counselling sessions as well as aftercare, which is catered
for the needs of each user, not a one size fits all counselling; for
example, our aftercare policy allows us to give the user links to other
organisations, such as housing, which can help them recover."

BASIN is also accentuating the need for educating parents and youths on the
dangers of drugs; "The Asian community has a real problem with heroine in
Reading, we teach both the youths and parents about the dangers of the
drug-it's about increasing awareness."

BASIN is currently working on educating imams on how to deal with alcohol
and narcotics users.