SEVENS HEIGHTS, Clarendon — After a horrific traffic mishap when he was 10 years old, many people did not think Amoy Johnson would live. He did, and though his life has been filled with pain the 36-year-old has managed to eke out a living. Now he’s asking for a job, one his broken body can manage to execute successfully, so that he can continue to care for his family. He also longs for a place they can call home.

“Is the mercy of God why I’m still alive. I’m grateful for that and I have been trying everything to live a somewhat normal life. I went to HEART and got a level two certificate in agriculture but nobody don’t really want to hire me when them see that I’m disabled,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“It doesn’t matter. Any type of help mi get is good because right now I don’t have it. So if it’s even a job that mi can manage and it won’t be too hard on me I will do it,” he pleaded.

Johnson was reduced to tears as he detailed the ordeal that changed his life.

“I was coming from school in a taxi packed with children and I was the one sitting at the door so I came out to let out another child. The driver sped off and I wasn’t fully in the car. I fell and was hanging out and it pulled me a good little distance. It mash mi up real bad [and] most people think I wouldn’t make it,” he told the Observer.

His mother helped ferry him back and forth to the hospital for years. Then as he became older he began trying to earn his way in life by doing any odd job that came his way.

“When I realise that I can help myself and ackee season comes in, I pick and sell them. Or when a time to pick up census for the Government I would do that, too,” Johnson said.

“I always tried to help myself. Whenever I use to work they use to say [if] my two hand could work I would be more than excellent. So right now not being able to help myself is really hard on me,” he said.

His last job was on a chicken farm. He began in April of last year, but it ended two months later.

“I leave in June because the job become a little hectic. I started to feel pain in my hands and my body was just in pain. So I had to leave it and go home,” he said.

He is worried that he can no longer provide for his family.

In Sevens Heights, Clarendon, he currently shares a one-bedroom house with his common-law wife and their four children, aged 11, seven, three and three months old.

“I really need one of those government house so I could have more space for me and the children. Right now it is six of us in a one-bedroom house and it’s hard because I’m not in a position to work and build a better house,” Johnson told the Observer.

But, for now, his most urgent need is a job.

Anyone who wishes to assist Johnson may contact him at (876) 302-3708.