Program Director Abu Al-Amin is to go to the Kenyan coastal area including Mombasa, Malindi and other smaller coastal cities to lead religious leaders to develop a community based response to the growing epidemic of heroin and other drug use. He will also be speaking in Mosques and working with rehabilitation centers and drop in centers in order for them to understand how they can deliver prevention and treatment services to Muslim patients with a holistic approach that incorporates Islamic spiritual traditions.

The letter inviting Abu Al-Amin to help Kenya

February 4, 2006

To Whom it May Concern:

RE: Visit of Abu Qadir Al-Amin to Kenya Feb 24 thru March 14, 2006

I am a State Department Regional Psychiatrist based at the US Embassy in Nairobi. For the past 2 years I have been working with USAID Kenya, various Kenyan NGOs and the Ministry of Health to develop prevention and rehabilitation services to substance abusers who are at high risk for becoming infected with HIV.

One of the sites we are working in is the Kenyan coastal area including Mombasa, Malindi and other smaller coastal cities. There are large populations of both injecting and non-injecting heroin users in these areas and the largest group of substance abusers are within the Muslim communities.

I have invited Mr. Al-Amin to visit Kenya in the immediate future to work with these Muslim communities. Mr Al-Amin is uniquely suited to provide us with assistance. The fact that he is an Imam who is extremely well versed in the Qur'an, that he is an African American who has had years of experience rehabilitating substance abusers and that he is knowledgable about and actively participates in the Millati Islami 12 step recovery program is an ideal combination for this work. He will have a great deal of credibility among the Islamic community here. Specifically he will be able to work directly with our Imams and other religious leaders to help educate them about addiction in an Islamic context. Our plan is to have Mr. Al-Amin lead a series of workshops and to have the goal of generating concrete plans to have these religious leaders develop a community based response to this growing epidemic of heroin and other drug use. We will also have him be speaking in Mosques and working with our rehabilitation centers and drop in centers in order for them to understand how they can deliver prevention and treatment services to Muslim patients with a holistic approach that incorporates Islamic spiritual traditions.

Sincerely,

Barrett Levine M.D.
American Embassy Nairobi

For more information about SLP, please contact:

[Abu Qadir Al-Amin, Program Director]
Center of Juvenile and Criminal Justice
54 Dore Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Tel: (415) 621-5661
Fax: (415) 621-5466