Ilford, UK — Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and youngest son of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, inaugurated the latest satellite of the drug crisis prevention and counseling center known as Drugsline. The Gants Hill offices will also house Drugsline’s School’s Outreach Team.
Prince Edward Inaugurates Chabad’s Drugsline
Ilford, UK — Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and youngest son of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, inaugurated the latest satellite of the drug crisis prevention and counseling center known as Drugsline. The Gants Hill offices will also house Drugsline’s School’s Outreach Team.
Drugsline, brainchild of Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin, is a project of Chabad-Lubavitch of Ilford. The group provides services for those struggling with drug addiction, and offers free, impartial support and information to concerned family and friends. Since its foundation in 1991, Drugsline has reached many thousands of people and has expanded its services to include education, counseling and support.
During his visit to the center the prince met with Drugsline staff and volunteers as well as children from the Chabad-Lubavitch nursery.
Rabbi Sufrin introduced the royal to an array of London VP’s, as well as Imam Haroon Rashid Patel, one of the collaborators in Drugsline’s recently launched ‘Joining the Loop’ partnership, the only service in the United Kingdom to offer multi-lingual drugs support services specifically tailored for the needs of the Jewish and Muslim communities.
Drugsline’s Outreach Team leader Darren Gold displayed the ‘drug kits’ his team use to aid their in-school education program and then expounded upon his own history with drugs.
“When I was an addict, stealing from my friends and family, I wish I had been able to turn to Drugsline,” said Gold passionately. “I have been in recovery for nine years. When I started working at Drugsline in 2004 there were only two schools workers, including myself. We visited 12,000 school children that year. But this academic year the figure is already approaching 30,000 -– and our target for next year is 50,000.”
Lisa Sharman, a student at Wanstead High School where the Drugsline Outreach team regularly visit, said, “Drugsline is a really important service; it is a lifeline for loads of kids. It is so good to see Drugsline honored with a royal visit, and I know they will carry on offering a very effective service.”
LONDON ROCKS
GO LONDON GO RABBI SUFRIN YOU REALLY BOUGHT A PIECE OF A REAL CHABAD HOUSE TO LONDON…SHKOACH!!
conc
beautiful opportunity to help save youth. wishing much success, with HaShem’s help.
Rudy
This article would have been great, had it not mentioned “Imam Haroon Rashid Patel”. Since when have we become a group of politically correct, left wing tree huggers? We need to work with a darn Imam to get projects done?
You think the Rebbe finds this acceptable?
impressed
To Rudy:
With respect, I think you’re somewhat naive here. No one despises “left wing tree huggers” (???) & Muslims more than I, but if you know anything about these things you know that you have to join forces with other groups (diversity, everyone) to get widespread support.
If Rabbi Sufrin found a way to do this to help Jews, great!! It doesn’t mean that their galachim go into our schools & deal with our kids. But it probably got him the money he needed to build this center.
Congratulations to Rabbi Sufrin etc.
Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin
Thank you both to Rudy and impressed.
I can assure you that we have one goal and that is to reach out to all of G-ds children in need. Sounds airy fairy maybe, but in the process of 16 years now, we have found and continue to find Jewish souls completely lost if not alien to the J community and through Drugsline are finding BH once again their J roots and Yechida Shebenefesh. Thanks for sharing