Social Guidance Agency
Post Box-153, 6th Floor, Lalat Tower, near Solomon’s Cave, Tuikual ‘A’, Aizâwl-796 001, Mizoram, India,
Aizawl
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BRIEF BACKGROUND OF THE SOCIAL GUIDANCE AGENCY:
Founder of the earliest known De-addiction Centre in the State of Mizoram discarded all thoughts of material gains and enhancement of personal advantages when public pressure pushed him to the challenging shoreline of the deep sea of intoxicants and hallucinations which swallowed thousands of redeemable souls of drug addicts, alcoholics and sex perverts days in and days out. No wonder that he had responded to the divine trumpet call by setting out with his wife and a child way back in the month of July, 1967 and joined the Oriental Missionary Society of Allahabad, U.P. to sacrifice his individual abilities and private assets for the spiritual and physical upliftment of the down and outs, street people and the orphans. His missionary assignments necessitated him to travel throughout the length and breath of U.P., Orissa, M.P. and Northern India.
He worked at the Oriental Missionary Society of Allahabad during 1967 to 1974 after which he continued to work as a full time evangelist during 1974 to 1980 in Mizoram organizing camps and crusades with his followers ranging from 10 to 40 devotees, travelling the whole of Mizoram on foot and preaching the redeeming words of salvation round the clock to the needy in general and to the denizens of the underworld in particular. His hard toils backed up with impressive sermons made applaudable impact on Brig.T.Sailo and Mr.Hiteswar Saikia, the then Chief Minister and His Excellency the Lt. Governor of Mizoram respectively, upon whose recommendation the State Social Welfare Department reserved a seat for his training at the Christian Counselling Centre, Vellore.Having completed the training course during 1980 to 1981, he daringly started a Counselling Centre at Aizâwl all by himself.
Here, he instantly encountered innumerable cases of marital problems, sexual predicaments, mental disorders, drugs and alcohols. Since many people had been miraculously cured of their illnesses or their problems solved, not only did the local newspapers publish the wonderful works of the pioneer counsellor of the state but also did the All India Radio frequently broadcast the good news of the healing ministry. The clients registered in the first year alone came to 1802 as per the record book maintained by the Counselling Centre till date. At the instance of Brig.T.Sailo, the then Chief Minister of Mizoram, a psychiatrist, a senior professor and a superintendent of NIMHANS, Bangalore visited the Centre and witnessed various miracles prevalent there at the time.
When visitors from NIMHANS had acknowledged cures of hopeless cases, even those that baffled the faculty members of Ranchi Mental Hospital, they motivated the State Government to lend a helping hand for the improvement of the Counselling Centre in the form of financial advances or grants-in-aid. Accordingly the founder was requested to register the Centre under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 and form a sort of Association with a name and a Constitution of its own. Originally, the name — Social Reforms Society was assigned to the newly formed Association and the constitution was drafted by the founder solely on his own. When public donations and Government assistances became available some members of the Association were found to be so eager to indulge themselves with material comforts and also thought so highly of their personal securities and status in the Association that the Social Reforms Society had to be disbanded before the end of two years.
After a long moment of indecision at the flop of his first venture, the prevailing social disorder in the State due to drugs, alcohols, sex and immoral traffickers compelled him to start all over again and somehow on January 30, 1986 the Social Guidance Agency was born. During 1982 to 1986 the founder was fully occupied with working out various bewildering problems posed by unruly throng of contemptible social outcasts, street people and mental patients who gate-crashed into his humble residence for food and lodging which nearly starved him and his family at times to the extent that the CBO (YMA) had to devise door to door collection of donations in kind and cash for the poor founder and his large household.
As the Social Guidance Agency had not yet have regular source of income, the founder had encountered countless hardships and sufferings to the tune of public humiliation and discouragement, and loss of self-esteem as well. Time and again, the organization and their charges comprising mostly of various addicts, sex workers, orphans, destitutes and street people were expelled from their rented building due to financial instability and also due often to the fact that these types of people were not acceptable to the landlord or landlady as regular tenants.
As time passed, he somehow secured a plot of cultivable land by the bank of River Tuivawl along Aizâwl — Champhai NH 54 for establishment of a De-addiction cum Rehabilitation Centre and an opportunity presented itself for his long cherished dream to take shape when the State Banks of India were advancing loans for Educated Unemployed Youths which was fortunately availed of in the name of his son. The loan, amounting to Rs.25,000/- was withdrawn from Saitual Branch of SBI in 1984 and he eagerly started building the De-addiction cum Rehabilitation Centre with the help of his followers — mostly of recovered and recovering addicts and alcoholics. The building having been finished, signboard displayed and the area cleared for cultivation, the Centre began to function in full swing. As the Organization’s primary objective was Self Reliance then, brick making project was undertaken and 2,00,000 nos. of bricks were made. A reservoir was also constructed with the help of the Chief Engineer of the Border Road Task Force stationed nearby.
T
he Centre was somewhat far from the City of Aizâwl and difficult to be managed by a part-time counsellor like him due to improper transport facility and lack of sufficient fund while the burden of maintaining his family had to be shouldered by his wife, a mere Staff Nurse in the City’s Civil Hospital. Repayment of loan instalments was due and he had to think of raising money somewhere. During his absence, building materials were stolen and passers-by freely helped themselves with the cash crops and fruits laboriously grown and planted there to attain self-sufficiency. People began to laugh at him, his relatives and friends called him a fool and turned their backs on him, loan repayment was long overdue, the reservoir was washed down by floods and his DRC building, the foundation of all his dreams, was burnt to ashes. He was completely broke, demeaned and humiliated.
But the founder of Social Guidance Agency, Mr.C.Dozuala is a man iron will, undaunted and not easily dismayed. He had learnt by heart that failure is the pillar of success. He had gone too far out on the road to the accomplishment of his dream to give up. He simply turned a deaf ear to public taunting remarks to discourage him by saying that he attempted to achieve what the Government and the Church dared not introduce for fear of failure. As a matter of fact, he had sacrificed everything he had and whatever he could do for the cause of humanity, totally unaware of the terrible situations to which his wife and children were subjected. His relatives felt sorry for him and pleaded him to stop then and there. But this stubborn trend-setter in de-addiction and counselling activities in the State had not yet reached his destination.
When the Social Guidance Agency was officially inaugurated in 1986 it was Mr.Haukhûma Hauzêl, IAS, the then Secretary of Social Welfare Department, who cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony since he had been a sympathizer of the Organization as he was well acquainted with the founder while he was staying with his family to execute his challenging assignments at Oriental Missionary Society at Allahabad where, contemporaneously, the Secretary was orienting himself at an IAS Coaching Centre. The two had remained good friends ever since and it was through the initiative of t
