Guwahati, Oct. 7: The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime has turned to a local custom to help women drug addicts in Mizoram.

In an initiative taken by the organisation under Project CHARCA, volunteers in the three districts of Champhai, Kolasib and Aizawl will collect rice from households once a week to mobilise money to help the affected women.

The idea of a community food bank was born in 1914, when a group of women — unable to contribute money to the Church as community service — came up with the idea of raising money by collecting a handful of rice from each of their members. They then sold the collected rice in the local market. The money thus raised was then donated to the Church.

“It is mobilising resources from the community to help people of the community who are affected by substance abuse,” co-ordinator of the project, Lalhlupuii Sailo, said.

Sailo said the rice would be collected and then sold in the market at a price slightly lower than the market rate. The money generated by selling the rice will be used to help women affected by drugs. The project will cover 289 villages in the three districts.

“The pilot project hopes to generate Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per month by selling rice and will be targeting 20,000 people a month.”

The entire process will be monitored from the time the rice is collected till the time it is sold in the market. “The rice, which will be collected for the project, will be announced through a public address system,” Sailo added. She said volunteers are being trained for the entire exercise and one volunteer will target at least 10 to 15 households.

The project aims at reducing the vulnerability of young women (between 13 and 25 years) to the risk of HIV infection by creating awareness and through capacity building, strengthening services, creating an enabling environment and building support structures.

The project will work with young women and a number of other people that influence the lives of young women and positive people’s networks.

Drug abuse has been a persistent problem in Mizoram. Proximity to the Myanmar border, from which heroin is sourced, is the main contributor to the prevalence of drug abuse. A high percentage of women are also affected.