Kenya: Comboni Missionaries plan rehab centre for slum alcoholics

The Comboni Missionaries are planning to open a rehabilitation centre for alcoholics from a Nairobi slum. Located in Ngong town outside the city, the centre will be ready by the end of this year. Luca Clochiatti is the coordinator of Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) at St John Catholic Church, Korogocho, of the Holy Trinity Parish Kariobangi. He said the centre will serve alcoholics who had failed to recover through other initiatives. A section of the institution will house street children rescued from in and around the slum. Luca said AA had helped many addicts in the slum to kick the habit. The importance of AA is that alcoholics share their experiences and support one another to recover, he added. Mary Muthoni, a former alcoholic who is now a Catholic lay leader in Korogocho, said hopeless poverty forced many slum residents to drink cheap and dangerous alcohol. "Many of the people I knew here have died from excessive alcohol and HIV/AIDS," said Muthoni, who has lived in Korogocho since 1980. Comboni Missionaries started AA in the slum in 1991.