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13th June, 2010
KOTA KINABALU : Former drug addicts are finding new life in the healing touch of foot massages that not only help those they serve but their own psyches.
Azman Hezri, master therapist of Precioso Spa and Beauty Care, who conducts free courses for former addicts with the National Anti Drug Agency (ADKK) not only teach them a new skill but to also give them a place in society again.
“This is a skill for them to support themselves so that they do not depend on others for financial assistance. Instead of giving them the ‘fish’, I give them the ‘rod’,” he said.
He said this to participants at a one-day foot massage course for former drug addicts accompanied by family and friends at the AADK office in Wisma San Hin here yesterday.
The course organised by the ADKK and Precioso Spa and Beauty Care, was attended by 15 participants who were taught the basics of foot massage and reflexology.
Azman, whose spa is based in Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, started training former addicts in Kuching, Sarawak five months ago. He then hired those he trained to work at his spa there.
“Eighty percent of my therapists are former addicts. But I don’t treat them any different than normal people. I don’t talk about it to my customers or anybody in the shop, ” he said. Instead of calling his workers ‘foot massagers,’ he prefers the term therapist.
According to him, they were trained for two months in his spa with an allowance of RM250 and an additional RM6 commission for each customer they serve.
“After the training, we groom them to become home-based entrepreneurs with the skills that they have within six months,” he said, adding that a trained therapist can earn between RM700 to RM800 a month.
In Kuching, Azman had setup a massage booth at a waterfront which according to him is known to be the place where drug transactions often takes place.
“It is risky, because my workers could relapse to their old habits but this is how they fight against temptation. People could say that it is embarrassing to be a foot massager but I think it is even more embarrassing to be doing what they had done before,” he said.
As part of the regime when Azman accepts former addicts who are female into his establishment is to take them out and show them how to have fun.
“We give them make-up, we dress them up and then we hit the clubs. There we will show them how to enjoy themselves without taking any liquor or drugs,” he said.
He also treats his workers as family members, often cooking meals for them and bringing them along in family trips.
“I treat them as family because the drug they need is love and attention,” he said.
According to Azman, some people turn to drugs because they lack the love and attention from their family.
“Sometimes I ask the housewives, how many of them spend five minutes of quality time with their children and talk to them? Staying in the house is not enough and it is better to spend just five minutes of quality time than to stay at home the whole time without saying a word to your children” he elaborated.
Azman is currently planning to open up a spa center in Sabah at Cyber City with the workers that he is currently training here.
“We also hope to open up a booth in Miri soon,” he said.
More information on Azman and Precioso are available on Facebook .
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