1989 – 1999

Ten years of drug treatment services

With support from the Canadian High Commission we established a 12 bed residential drug treatment and rehabilitation center in Lahore in 1989. This was Pakistan’s first drug treatment facility based on client rights and voluntary admission. 

In these ten years we were supported by multiple agencies to scale up drug treatment and rehabilitation services across Pakistan. CRS, the British High Commission and the European Commission were the main supporters in addition to UN agencies.

By mid 90’s our client base shifted from middle income clients to street based persons using drugs living below the line of poverty. Residential drug treatment approaches had to be of a lower threshold to suit needs of street based clients and the concept of ‘reaching-out’ to clients and providing services in their own environment was initiated. Basic health care, legal support and counseling to seek drug treatment and rehabilitation were the main components of out reach. With support from DO-International, Germany and the Canadian High Commission we initiated skills training for employment opportunities of program beneficiaries.

During this period Nai Zindagi became a knowledge  hub for local and national civil society service providers to build their caapcity through training programs and exposure visits to our programs.