Johnny from “the needle hill”

By Anne Karine, José & Xavier

Description of the situation:

It is a group of drugabuser in the park (junkies).
They are in different age, from the 13? – 45 year
Different sex, mainly men, the women is into prostitution, more invisible (you find them in another place).
They are standing in the upper part of the park which is called “the needle hill” by the locals.
Close to where they are there is a hotel and some more sophisticated houses. The neighbors to the needle hill are very embarrassed by their doing…. By their hygienic costumes and sexual activities sometimes in their garden.
Needles are “floating around” and people are worried about dogs and children that can be hurt or infected by the needles. Sometimes there are a lot of noise and fights. People living nearby and families that likes to be in the park feel embarrassed by the junkies. Sometimes they can see that they are cleaning their needles in the water fountain (for drinking) and that they are doing injections where families are sitting nearby.
There is a problem that youngsters are coming to the park and that parents as well as teachers and social workers and the police are worried about youngsters becoming part of this milieu.
There has been a lot of protest from the neighborhood in the newspapers lately about the situation in the park and the leader of the neighbor organization has had several notices in the newspaper on this and also made contact with the politician and the social authorities.
There is a discussion among the readers if the junkies should be moved to another area in the city – this raise other questions about what this solve.
The junkies are living in the city but also outside the cities, but they come to this park to get the drugs.
One of the local newspaper journalists makes an interview and portrait of Johnny who is one of the junkies in the park.
Characters:
Johnny:
The journalist?:
The leader of the neighbor organization:




There are two or three persons here that get in contact with the journalists who want to make a portrait of the junkies situation.
He wakes up in the morning and the first to do is to think how to get the stuff. Some way of getting the drug is steeling, begging and selling Megafon.

User participation and participatory action involving the group of junkies to do something which does not make conflict.

The story is told by the drugabuser “ Johny
The Neighbourhood The story is also told by one of the neighbours in the park who think they should be moved from the park
Politician


flickr picture by KayVee.INC