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The ojek driver who runs a rehab center for underage glue addicts
With no expertise, no experts, and no money, an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver in Papua set up a rehab center for street children addicted to glue.
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Better busy than bored: The classes aim to keep glue-addicted children from returning to their life on the streets. (JP/Courtesy of Amos Yesinar)
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n early 2017, Papuan NGO administrator Amos Yesinar was recovering from an illness that almost cost him his life. For almost a year, the 34-year-old struggled with a chronic lung disease that was eating his body away. He was physically weakening, and was forced to spend all his family savings on trying to get better. It did not help that early on, Amos’ doctor said he only had a few days to live.
"After that I made a promise: If I manage to get better, I will use my life to serve God,” Amos recalls.
He eventually achieved recovery after struggling for a year. Due to the money he lost, however, Amos began trying out different career paths. One that became his main job was an ojek (motorcycle-taxi) driver. His days were spent crawling along Nabire city in Papua, hoping to find passengers.
Amos found his calling when one afternoon as he was riding his motorcycle around the city, he came across a sight that broke his heart. Amos saw a group of very young children and teens between the ages of 7 and 16 sniffing glue in public, taking turns sniffing and inhaling a can they had in their hands. He thought about the damage the glue would do to their lungs and vowed to ensure that the children would not suffer the same fate as him.
"Then I approached them and asked them, 'Why are you sniffing glue?' But they got scared and ran away. And there were a lot of them, not just one or two kids,” Amos recalls.
‘Instruction from God’
