A Unique Approach to Rehab in Indonesia

[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: Hello, I'm Hannah, I'm an addict. [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: I went to a rehab like this about a year and a half ago. I know how hard it is. It's a really, really hard thing to do. And I think you're all very, very brave. To be here. [CLAPPING] [CHANTING] HANNAH BROOKS: Thankfully I didn't come to Indonesia for treatment. And I'm not here to interview this group of recovering addicts. I'm here to buy a pair of shoes. [CLAPPING] [CHANTING] HANNAH BROOKS: I'm at a drug treatment center called YAKITA in Bogor, an area about 60 kilometers outside Jakarta. Indonesia experienced the beginnings of an unprecedented drug epidemic in the 1980s. Sparked in part by rapid economic growth and the increasing availability of new drugs, Indonesia found itself facing a crisis it had no idea how to handle. A couple, David and Joyce, founded the center in 1999 in response to the growing problem. DAVID GORDON: The drug of choice that really kicked it off was ecstasy in the '80s, in the early '80s, because it became the love drug. And it was in the discotheques. It was in the night life. And from there it immediately dropped to ***. And then in the late '90s is when shabu shabu methamphetamine began to surface. HANNAH BROOKS: In the past decade, shabu shabu has overtaken *** as Indonesia's drug of choice, with *** labs popping up all over the country, making it cheap and easy to access. DAVID GORDON: There was no recovery in the country. Hospitalization was unheard of. Rehabilitation was unheard of. It was too big. Where do you start when nothing's been started? HANNAH BROOKS: While YAKITA is a center for men, they also run a program for female addicts and partners of addicts, focused on providing support, skills, and income. These women design and produce sandals called junkies. I love the name. And I really want a pair. So we go to the workshop where the junkies are produced. DAVID GORDON: We were just thinking about what we could do, in a sense of what they call vocational training. What we call just trying to get some jobs for young people. HANNAH BROOKS: Dian showed me around the workshop. DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: As none of the women had made shoes before, their initial designs were simple slip on sandals, thongs, ballet flats, and some bracelets. While Joyce oversees the project, the women design and assemble the shoes themselves, and have the final say about what becomes a junkie shoe and what doesn't. So how do you guys know each other? Is it through meetings, or the center, or just through here? OK, are you guys friends? Best friends? BFF? You too? Do you do lots of shopping? That's your new addiction, is it? I find it really, really funny that they're called junkies. What do you guys think about that? So you can kind of see the humor in it now? JOYCE DJAELANI: We chose that name together because we felt in the past addiction, junkies, is a negative part of you. But how do you change that into something that's empowering? So changing the connotation of the word junkies into something that's positive. [SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: So you're an addict? Can I ask what your drug of choice was? [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: Dian explains that she grew up in a broken home. She left when she was 14 and began selling *** for her brother, becoming addicted in the process. Did you ever get busted when you were helping them deal drugs? DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: That's pretty ballsy. [LAUGHTER] HANNAH BROOKS: Wow. In Indonesia, shabu is kind of taking over as the big drug. ANITA: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]. HANNAH BROOKS: Home delivery. That's convenient. ANITA: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: A lot of women at the center have lost their spouses to drugs, including Novi, who was addicted to *** for the past 16 years. And do you just buy it up the street? From your husband. Your husband was a *** addict too? Sorry to hear that. JOYCE DJAELANI: We began to think also in terms of how to keep the women coming and not to be dependent on their spouses, who were still addicts. How can they generate a little income? A sort of type of livelihood for them to continue coming to the center. So they are able to have some money to actually pay for the bus to come over, have some money for their daughters to go to school, so that was how it started. HANNAH BROOKS: So did you struggle with relapsing initially? [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: Yeah. [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] JOYCE DJAELANI: It's not like being in a factory, where you're timed by whatever it is you create. But actually just by making the sandals together and sharing your life stories, it becomes so fluid. And everybody gets to know one another. It's empowering for everyone. HANNAH BROOKS: And so are you practicing Muslims? And with your drug use in the past, how have the two things kind of sat together? Has that been really difficult? ANITA: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: Oh, wow. Did you have a hard time finding veins? DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: So you were injecting in your feet. DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: And, I mean did you overdose? DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: Have a lot of people in your life died? DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: A hundred. DIAN: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] DAVID GORDON: A lot of the young people that are with us, that have ***, and they have AIDS, and they have tuberculosis, they don't have any way to pay for medicine. And we thought this would be a really good way to generate jobs where a bunch of the young people could actually be there and make these sandals, and then we would be able to sell them. HANNAH BROOKS: Would you guys like to model some of the shoes? [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: What about the black ones? [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] HANNAH BROOKS: I have big feet. Shoe sizes run small in Indonesia. But the women eventually found a pair that fit me, made from a local batik. Yeah, they're nice. Dian glued the label onto my very own pair of junkies. JOYCE DJAELANI: If they were not addicts, they would not end up in these programs, and learn so much about life and living and getting a family that really cares about them. And that's what's important for them. [MUSIC - JINGLE PUNKS]