‘Comunidad, Familia Y Salud Mental’ was the title of a conference to celebrate 25 years of the work of La Roca Foundation (a member of ISAAC) in Vina del Mar, Chile on 5-6 December. David Partington was invited to attend this conference, to speak about ‘The Healing Family.’ In reporting about the visit David said, “It was a wonderful opportunity to see the work of La Roca, Carpe Diem and other centres as well as to meet with the leaders and workers of other excellent projects. Once again it was a real joy to see the way in which men and women of God are having a real impact on the lives of people with addiction problems.”

David’s visit, as General Secretary of ISAAC, resulted in key leaders of the ‘Asociacion de Comunidades Terapeuticas Evangelicas de Chile’ being invited to a meeting at the Ministry of the Interior in Santiago. The meeting, with leaders of ‘Conace’ (a government addiction ‘umbrella’ organisation), confirmed their appreciation of Christian organisations in Chile and how they are held in such high regard for their professionalism and effectiveness.

Going to Chile was also part of building relationships with Ivan Alvarado, President of La Roca, who has been part of ISAAC for many years. At the last International Trustees meeting Ivan was asked to be the ISAAC Regional Coordinator for Latin America. He has been building relationships over a number of years with other leaders of drug projects in Argentina, Costa Rica, Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and other Latin American countries. In the months ahead Ivan and other leaders will be making plans for an ISAAC conference in Lima, Peru sometime in 2009 so that they can develop the Latin American network more formally.

Contact with Ivan Alvarado can be made on: