Drug Rehab Center, Manila – “I used to be a ‘jumper’”

The staff of our drug rehab center (Set free Center) on the Philippines, reports: “Bernhard, the youngest out of 12 siblings, grew up on a garbage dump. He never got to know his mom. He is an estimated 25 years old with no idea about his actual year or day of birth.

In order to help his family to make ends meet, he started to sort out garbage on the garbage dump at a very young age.
But his dad wasn’t satisfied with the amount of money he brought back home and threw him out of the house.

The street became Bernhard’s new home. He began to sniff glue, just to escape the reality of the hard life on the streets. The garbage provided for his food.
The struggle to survive got tougher. Once, he and a friend ate a cat. Afterwards, his friend caught a rat on the garbage dump and ate it as well. Shortly after the friend died.

To finance his drug addiction, Bernhard began to work as a garbage wagon free-rider, a so called “jumper”. Jumpers jump on a garbage wagon driving by and try to grab the best and most “valuable” pieces of trash as quickly as possible. However, there are countless jumpers, every one of them has his own territory and the competition is fierce.

The scars on Bernhard’s legs give proof of the dangerousness of this kind of work. If you can’t get a firm grip right away while jumping on, you might fall off the driving wagon.
Bernhard came to our Set Free Center in September 2007. He has found a home and is very happy about it. Not so long ago he visited his family and even met his sister, who was missing for a long time. God is restoring Bernhard’s life, just like the Bible promises: “Because I live, you also will live.”

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