OASI Foundation marks 31 years of service

A thanksgiving ceremony was held at the OASI Centre in Gozo on June 25 to celebrate the 31st anniversary of its foundation.

Opening the event, OASI Foundation chief executive Noel Xerri remarked that June 26 is the International Day against Drugs, besides also being a special day for the OASI Foundation. Xerri said what is happening in Europe was also happening on our doorstep, noting that throughout the past years a decrease in heroin use was followed by an increase of people being dependent on using cocaine.

Additionally, the foundation was seeing an increase in women seeking help due to dependency on alcohol. He added that there were no differences between Malta and Gozo, and between Malta and Europe, and that the problem was real.

Xerri said that local society has a mentality that ‘we only do what is good for us’, adding this could lead to more problems. He said since addiction also impacted the family an additional therapy service offered by OASI Foundation for families consisted of training them in the necessary skills to deal with this problem. He thanked all the entities, staff and directors for their help as well as all the people who make use of the foundation’s...