Despite the challenges of conquering another language and culture, not to mention financial difficulties, Daisuke Aoyama is pressing forward with his zeal to help Turkish drug addicts shake off their dependence on narcotics.
He uses his room in a five-story apartment in Turkey's largest city as an office named "Istanbul DARC" to lend a helping hand to people who want to rid themselves of drugs.
Aoyama, 27, is an ex-user who took amphetamines and inhaled volatile solvent thinner. He was arrested when he was a high school senior in Mie Prefecture, spent six months in a facility for juvenile delinquents but was not able to free himself of the habit.