A CHARITY with links to St Mary’s Church in Liss has set up a community in Bolivia to tackle drug addiction.

Novo has set up the drug addict centre Quinta Totaices in Santa Cruz.

Quinta Totaices first opened its doors to residents in December.

Trevor Childs, who lives in Liss, is a regular at St Mary’s Church and is the chairman of the UK board of trustees for Novo.

Trevor said: “We have capacity for eight residents at the centre while we get our systems and procedures up and running, and this will then increase to 16 residents.

“This is a deliberate choice while the centre is bedding in.

“Not all of the residents have stuck with the programme all the way through, but this is common for drug rehab centres.”

As well as dealing with drug addiction, the centre has set up a business for the residents.

Trevor said: “We have started a mobile car wash business for the residents to provide work and help them reconnect with society, and this is going quite well.

“The mobile car business will also hopefully gives us financial stability.”

The centre in Santa Cruz has had a number of visitors from the United Kingdom, including Dan Head.

Dan is the programme leader at Yeldall Manor, which is the Christian rehab centre near Reading which Novo is based on.

Trevor said: “Dan has been in prison and been a heroin addict and is now the programme leader at Yeldall Manor, so he was able to show the residents that it is possible to turn their lives around if they stick to the programme.

“We keep in contact with the centre by using video conferences, and a number of other people have already been out there.

“We have also had support from people in Canada and the United States.”

Once Quinta Totaices is fully up and running plans are in place for Novo to open more centres in Bolivia.

“We are looking at three or four possible sites,” added Trevor.

“However, the plan is to have this first centre fully up and running before opening other centres.”

As previously reported, an antiques valuation day was held at St Mary’s Church in November and raised vital funds for Novo.

Anyone who would like more information on Novo or to donate money should visit its website at: www.novocommunities.org for further details.