HARM REDUCTION IS GOD'S GRACE

Helping Addicted People Through Injection Clinics

Meera Bai is a local nurse who is on a mission to reach as many
Christians as possible.

It's time the Christian community started recognizing "harm
reduction" -supervised drug-use facilities -as part of their own
faith, she says.

It's a position she's developed and nurtured through her experiences
as a nurse in Vancouver's downtown eastside. She worked at an InSite
safe injection location while a student at Regents College -an
international graduate school of Christian studies -and today is a
nurse working with the Calgary Urban Project Society in the Downtown
Outreach Addiction Partnership and DOAP Encampment Team.

The DOAP Team operates as a harm reduction model and focuses on
people dealing with addictions.

"My personal mission is to use my skills as a nurse to help people
who are clearly in need. When I was in Vancouver I thought well this
is probably the best place to look for people in need in the downtown
eastside," says Bai. "I realized just how important it was and just
how in line with my faith it was. I hadn't understood that before. I
think what I had understood about InSite is I thought that it enabled
addiction. And that was the biggest misconception that I had.

"What I really understood when I worked there was that this was a
concept of grace which is what my faith is based on. As Christians we
believe that God loves us no matter what and he sticks with us. We're
told this through the story of Israel in the Bible of people who mess
up and God stays with them. We're a continuation of that story. So
for me I just see the church as being a group of people just trying
who mess up some times. But God is with us. Even when we mess up He
forgives us and we work at it. He tries to minimize the amount of
damage that we do."

Bai wants to bring that message to churches throughout the community.

"In my own life I can see that God tries His best to protect me
sometimes when I do stupid things or make dumb decisions," she says.
"So how much more is He going to do that for people who may not even
have had a choice in the beginnings of their addiction?

"I've seen three generations of the same family shoot up in the same
room. So for anyone to point to that third generation and say, get a
job, you should not be an addict or you're choosing this lifestyle so
therefore you deserve to die on the street' doesn't make sense. It's
not a Christian response."

She articulated her message in an article for ChristianWeek, which
won in its category in the Canadian Church Press Awards, as well as
an honourable mention for the A.C. Forrest Memorial Awards. She has
spoken at universities such as Ambrose and Mount Royal and provided
policy consultation with street agencies such as the Mustard Seed.

"I think the concept of harm reduction is basically rewording the
concept of grace," says Bai. "What it's saying is people mess up and
we're going to be there to help you. We're going to stick with you.
And if you are present with people who are struggling, who are
addicts, there's no way you can be present with them and have
integrity and let them keep shooting up using puddle water, or
(overdosing) in mass numbers.

"If you're going to actually be with these people, you're going to
try to house them and you're going to try to take care of them. Harm
reduction is the outcome of a Christian way of living among people
with addictions. Christians often have not understood harm reduction
in that way. They've understood it as sin that is being encouraged."

"If you're going to actually be with these people, you're going to
try to house them and you're going to try to take care of them. Harm
reduction is the outcome of a Christian way of living among people
with addictions. Christians often have not understood harm reduction
in that way. They've understood it as sin that is being encouraged."

The response to her message has been mixed. Of course, some of it has
been negative, but "I've actually been really encouraged by the
response I've been getting," adds Bai.

Her message is told through stories. And people are drawn into stories.

"And as soon as you're drawn in you can't ignore it," she says.