‘With one addict in recovery, there is a whole generation that is set free.’
IPS Corporación Oasis en Marinilla, Antioquia, Colombia, was founded in 2015 by Nelson Lodoño Franco and his wife, María Patricia Arcila. Their mission is to reach out to those who are wandering aimlessly in the desert of addiction. In many cases, these are people whose addiction has left them lost and confused. Their lives are full of losses: family, their roles within it, their jobs, friends, self-care…’ (…) ‘We reach out to them, welcome them, and do not judge them.’ Nelson says that, over the years, these people ‘have seen problematic consumption, addiction, as a way for the subject to hide what is unsaid, what is distressing, unmentionable’.
‘We work under a therapeutic community model, drug-free, independent of the psychiatric hospital. ‘ The Corporation’s working group is interdisciplinary. An essential component of the working methodology is nourished and enriched by elements taken from psychoanalysis for their daily work. They have a therapeutic intervention structure that seeks to act as a symbolic mediator for the individuals undergoing treatment there. Corporación Oasis is a place where there is room for the unsaid, for the individual’s speech, for what is unmentionable.
Through speech, it seeks to turn around what they have sought to silence through drugs (or other addictions). Noises that each subject has invented in order not to feel, to defend themselves against what hurts each one in their uniqueness. Above all, ‘we want them to take responsibility for their impulses and their enjoyment. It is common for them to arrive at Corporación Oasis with an “everything for me” mentality. How much do you want? Everything. Where and when? Right here, right now. What will you do to get it? Nothing. Why? Because it’s me, I deserve it, and you have an obligation to give it to me.’
‘We want the subject to find more adaptive ways of living. We don’t want life to revolve solely around consumption’ (…) ‘We want them to leave at least convinced that everything in life is earned.’ Nelson emphasises that he recommends that his working group also work on their subjectivity. This means that they, too, should engage in free choice through the spoken word. Whether with psychologists, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts or whoever they want, but they seek to examine themselves in a profound and in-depth manner. This is so that, in their day-to-day work with patients, personal matters, matters of their subjectivity, remain outside of their work with patients.
The above, together with their vocation to help others, has enabled them to lend a hand to dozens of people who have passed through the Oasis Corporation. When asked what has awakened in him the desire to move the Corporation forward as a life project, Nelson describes it as his choice for life. He knows first-hand what it means to have been given a helping hand, which helped him to free himself, and he seeks to do the same for others.
