Jesmond* has gone from living off €7,000 a week to €425 a month, after years of instability, exploitation and drug abuse.
The young man has spent 33 years moving around. The early part of his life was spent in different children’s homes before he moved on to relatives’ houses, a rented apartment, a beach, a prison, a hospital and various residential homes. Currently he is living in one of Richmond Foundation’s semi-independent apartments.
“I come from a poor family. When I started working as a security guard in Paceville, aged 18, and I had some money in hand, I tried out different drugs, climbing my way up from one drug to another.
“To keep up with my own habit, I eventually started selling drugs for a trafficker, making thousands a week.”
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Jesmond recalled how he lived every Saturday in fear, his heart pounding, as, loaded with hundreds of sachets containing a plethora of drugs, he crossed paths with police officers.
His luck eventually ran out and he was imprisoned. After coming out of jail aged 30, he was offered refuge by the trafficker. However, he refused and eventually ended up penniless and homeless.
He spent some weeks living off the remains of food that people threw away, sleeping on a sandy beach, until he finally sought professional help for mental health issues and drug abuse problems.
Asked what had prompted him to seek support, Jesmond said he had no choice. “I literally had nothing else to lose and at the same time still lived in fear of the trafficker.”
Once he sought help from Richmond Foundation and Caritas Malta, he managed to sort out several pending issues such as transferring his car’s ownership, something that might seem minor but was actually a huge challenge for him at the time.
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Until he overcomes his mental health issues, Jesmond will not be able to work full-time, so at the moment he is being guided on how to live off €425 a month – something that is rather challenging for the young man.
“At first, I actually spent… or rather wasted… half of my monthly income. But instead of being scolded, as I used to be dealt with in the past, I was helped out to budget the remaining funds.
“I’m trying to keep myself occupied but at the same time plan out my day well… since I’m now living on my own, I have to do house chores as well, something I never did before.”
He is being guided by social workers and is already feeling better despite only living by himself for a few months.
Jesmond believes that children brought up in similar circumstances need support when they turn 13 or 14, as that is when they start hanging out with people or frequent places that could lead them down the same path he ended up taking.