In Lithuania, injected drug users (IDUs) are often stigmatised and funding for fundamental services is limited. To help vulnerable groups, the Lithuanian NGO ‘I can live’ Coalition (Galiu gyventi) provides legal aid and organises campaigns to increase the coverage and improve the quality of health care and social services. The ‘I can live’ Coalition receives funding from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the NGO programme in Lithuania.
Svajūnas receives support from the project. More than 20 years ago, when he was only a teenager, he started using drugs. Svajūnas explains that the distance from an ordinary life, to a life dominated by ‘pain, humiliation and disappointment’ is very short:
“One ‘try’ was enough to turn me from a promising young chemist to a youngster addicted to drugs, cooking and producing drugs for my own use. Every morning began with a single thought; where to get drugs. Drugs possessed me.”
Most of the salary he received from various jobs was spent on drugs. His friends and family were also victims of Svajūnas’ drug abuse:
“It has been a heavy burden for my friends and loved ones. Gradually, over the years, I lost them one by one. True friends were replaced by those with money, so that I could get my dose.”
It was Svajūnas’ wife who convinced him to seek help. She gave him a clear choice:
“She threatened to divorce me if I did not participate in the Methadone Treatment Programme. I had a clear choice: Return to a normal life or continue with the degradation,” he says.
A slow, but steady recovery
The Methadone Treatment Programme helped Svajūnas to settle outstanding legal issues. Through the ‘I can live’ Coalition, he is now involved in educational and advocacy activities. He is hoping that his own experiences can help other drug users in a similarly difficult situation:
“I want to play an active part in the ‘I can live’ Coalition so that I can improve access to treatment and reduce the existing social stigma and discrimination against drug addicts. To be addicted to drugs is a serious disease that requires treatment. No one will question when a person with diabetes injects insulin, but for those taking methadone it is quite different.”
Svajūnas’ life is now on the right track. His relationship with his wife and daughter has improved, and he has expanded his circle of friends and acquaintances – many of them are drug addicts undergoing therapy.
“My life slowly started to change after I was enrolled in the Methadone Treatment Programme. I am a much safer and calmer human being. I have to express my gratitude to the ‘I can live’ Coalition and their experts.”
About the project
The project receives €139 635 from the NGO programme in Lithuania. The project started in November 2013 and will end in May 2015.