your LETTERS
A Letter to the Chaldean Community To my community, I feel an urgent need to reach out to our community leaders and the entire Chaldean community! Last week I buried my nephew, only 26 years old. His life ended too soon due to a drug overdose. My family is devastated by the tragic loss of our loved one. I wanted you to know that this problem has not only touched our family, but has become a problem throughout our community. The Opiate/narcotic crisis in our community is as real as it gets. Our children, young adults, and adults are starting to experiment with drugs like never before. They’re starting with prescription drugs such as Vicodin, Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, to name a few. When those drugs become pricey and unavailable, they move on to street drugs such as Heroin, Meth, Crack, Cocaine, and synthetic Molly. These drugs are causing deaths in our community
at a higher rate than ever. Just this week I have heard that more young adults have lost their lives due to drug overdose. Unfortunately, due to fear of shame or embarrassment from our community, most parents maintain their silence. Therefore actual numbers of death due to overdose is unknown. The only real shame and embarrassment there should be is by not speaking out and helping others to understand that this is real. This is an epidemic. We need to speak out and help others recognize the patterns and signs of addiction. Our community needs to WAKE UP and see that this problem is REAL. Lives are being lost. Families are being shattered, and no one is speaking out. Denial is only hurting our community. Families need to ask loved ones and our community for help, and they should not be ashamed to do so. It is only through support and love that we can fight this epidemic that has claimed so many of our children’s lives. So I ask this of you, my Chal-
dean community, to use all of our resources to promote awareness to this problem. We need hotlines for drug users that want to seek help, and more importantly some sort of Crime Stopper line for the individuals to help find where and how they are obtaining these drugs. If we don’t at least try and figure out solutions with regards to this epidemic, we will all have failed our community. Please use resources such as the Federation/News and spread the word to all organizations such as CALC and our Chaldean Church to help people understand and report to the community that this problem is real and is not just going to go away unless we help each other and speak up. I would like to thank all of our community in advance for your help in this matter and spreading the word. God bless, George Abro On behalf of the Kallabat family
NEED HELP? Peter’s Angels Is Here To Help! Peter’s Angels is a 501(C) (3) nonprofit organization incorporated to raise awareness of the drug epidemic within the Chaldean Community of greater Detroit, and beyond. We seek to provide prevention through education and awareness. Our mission is to engage the community in hopes of setting aside the embarrassment of addiction for the sake of our children’s health and safety. PetersangelsCC@gmail.com Instagram: @petersangelscc Facebook: Peter’s Angels Iman Numan (248)-909-0080
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