Sinéad sells US home to help drug addicts in Limerick
Sinéad sold her home in Atlanta, Georgia, to help raise funds for the Aljeff Treatment Centre in Limerick.
Aljeff operations director, Danny Desmond said yesterday they have now received €500,000 from the sale of the house, through a charitable foundation into which the proceeds of the sale were lodged.
Mr Desmond said: “Sinéad’s generous donation has been crucial in allowing us developing our services over the past 18 months, taking on full time counselling staff to provide a greater service to the increasing number of people with addiction who are coming to Aljeff.”
Aljeff was founded five years ago by Tommy Roche after his two brothers Alan and Jeffrey committed suicide within days of each other.
Aljeff which has it’s own centre in South Circular Road has more than 200 clients on its books.
Mr Desmond said that about 100 of these are inmates at Limerick prison.
But providing an adequate service to the prison is putting strain on Aljeff which has three full time counsellors and two trainee counsellors.
Mr Desmond said: “We could cater for more people, particularly in the prison and we have plans to start working in conjunction with GPs in Limerick if we can develop our resources.”
Aljeff needs to raise about €250,000 a year to maintain it’s current counselling services.
He said the increased use of cocaine in Limerick is now becoming apparent with a noticeable increase in the number of people addicted to the drug coming forward to seek help.
Mr Desmond said: “Cocaine is certainly on the rise and this is worrying. It’s use seems to be very common and widespread over the last year of so.
“There is a very worrying trend with the use of cocaine.”
But he said the big problem drug is still alcohol.
He said: “I don’t know if the resources are put into warning people of the dangers of excessive drinking to the same extent as the focus has been put on smoking and the dangers it causes to health.”
Mr Desmond said Aljeff needs more staff to expand it’s services in a more balanced manner.
While they receive funding from the prison service, they are primarily dependent on voluntary donations to continue to provide their service.
He said: “Sinéad O’Connor has been great to us and she also gave us another big donation from a TV show she did with Daniel O’Donnell.”
