With Love from the Heng Hua community

EVERY year, the Heng Hua community hold a few social welfare projects to help the needy and this year, they had one for Marudi.

“We’re very happy to be able to bring gifts to our friends at the St Bernadette’s Convent in Marudi,” said Tay Moi Kiew, a Heng Hua community leader.

Tay is one of the very few Heng Huas who came to Miri from China. Most members of her community in Miri are descendants of the early Heng Huas who set foot in Sarawak in 1912, led by Rev Brewster, an American missionary to the Heng Huas in China.

These early pioneers settled in Sungei Teku, Sibu, and gradually, their descendants migrated to other parts of Sarawak to start taxi and bus services, tyre shops and some market gardening. The Heng Huas also have a reputation as good fishermen.

For their project at St Bernadette’s Convent, a group of humanitarians, comprising 20 Heng Huas, mostly descendants of the clan from St Teku, made the trip in five vehicles.

In a sixth vehicle, a Heng Hua lady, Cecilia Liew, brought her non-Heng Hua friends along. One of them was a special person – Teresa Anal, a Melanau, who is in the Convent with Sister Rufina, the nun responsible for the 25 girls now staying there.

Teresa, now retired, has always wanted to meet Sister Rufina, having known her since she was three years old.

After her father passed away, Teresa was placed in the Mukah Convent at age three. She was educated there up to Form Five when she left the Convent at 19 to marry a school teacher.

Teresa has a lot of fond memories of her days at the Convent. And this trip was special for her – to be reunited with Sister Rufina in a stroll down memory lane.

When she saw the little girls at St Bernadette’s Convent, she was teary. They are exactly like her when she was young.

The sole Convent

Teresa said St Bernadette now is the only Convent which accommodates underprivileged children in the whole of Malaysia.

According to Sister Rufina, the Convent takes in children belonging to Catholic families in the Baram Valley.

They have to be cared for because their grandparents can no longer send them to school in the ulu villages where there are either no schools or the schools are too far away.

The fathers of some of the children have left the family while the mothers of many of them have to work elsewhere.

Relatives were able to support the children when they were younger but educating the children when they reach school-going age is beyond them.

The girls stay in the Convent until they are 12 years old.

When they reach Form One, they can become boarders in government schools. With good results in primary school and good spiritual upbringing, they are usually given free board and lodging in secondary schools and even federal scholarships for underprivileged children.

After being informed of the children’s plight by a Catholic Church member in Miri, the Heng Hua ladies decided to collect new school uniforms, shoes, pencil cases, socks, tooth-brushes, used soft toys, still new clothes for the boys and girls.

Almost two van-fuls of donations were collected – many from their own friends and families – within a very short time.

Miri Hing Ann Association (for the Heng Hua clan) president Dato David Goh Kien Ping also came for the trip from Miri to Marudi along with some of the women’s spouses.

Well known as cabbies

The Heng Huas are well known as taxi drivers all over Malaysia – and it was really nice to see a Heng Hua cabby, known as Ng, joining the convoy to Marudi in his red and fellow vehicle.

It was a very exciting trip for people who enjoyed the ride along the newly-opened road and bridge at Sungei Arang.

Ng’s wife, a Sino Kadazan woman, also came along with their daughter Naomi.

Mrs Ng is a kind-hearted lady who enjoys helping people. She was happy so many of her sisters could go to Marudi, spend time with each other and perform a good deed.

All the ladies from the Miri Heng Hua community agreed the Marudi project was one of their best. It had enabled them to meet 86-year-old Foochow Sister Francesca from Sarikei and Sister Rufina from Mukah who both speak excellent English besides their own dialect and Malay.

The group were shown the girls’ dormitory and the kitchen and were impressed by the ambience.

Cecilia Liew remarked: “These girls are very happy and their eyes sparkled when we talked to them. They are so well brought up – so polite and loving.”

Food is supplied everyday fresh from the contractor and cooked by a third staff of the Convent besides the two Catholic Sisters.

The cook herself is a single mother and very appreciative of the job given her by the Convent. Two of her five children are in secondary school – the other three with the Convent.

She hoped all her children would receive good education now that she has a job and the Convent is helping her raise her children.

The girls and boys from St Mark’s Boarding School of the Catholic mission gave a performance of songs under the supervision of Sister Rufina.

Janji to do well

In a short speech after the performance, Dato David Goh made the children promise to do well in school. He asked: Janji? And they all replied Janji with great enthusiasm.

There was a sudden heavy downpour when the ladies prepared to unload the presents for the children. All adjourned to the front of the Church so that the boxes would not be drenched.

The children were delighted to receive the presents, especially the soft toys – and there were more to come.

The gifts would definitely bring joy to their simple life and make the world a little warmer and more endearing for them.

Teresa (Anal), a happy former Convent girl, said the last words and a prayer: “May God bless these little children and keep them safe. May they grow into responsible adults to make our society a better place. And May God bless the Heng Hua Community of Miri for responding so speedily to our call for donations and aid.”