Chinese teacher helps adopted Muslim kids practise their faith

Happy family: Jefri (in purple) and Ridzuan greeting Wong at their house.

A CHINESE woman from Kota Kinabalu adopted five Muslim children in the past 20 years, reported Sin Chew Daily.

Kindergarten teacher Connie Wong, fondly known as Cikgu Wong, is a Buddhist but she makes sure the children, aged between 11 and 20, practise their faith.

She now has two children staying with her – Jefri, 13, and Ridzuan, 11.

They attend religious classes in school and go for Friday prayers.

Wong, 59, prepares halal food for them daily. During the holy month of Ramadan, she makes sure they observe fasting.

The two oldest children have started working while the third, Aiza, is in a learning centre.

Recalling her first adoption, Wong said a woman brought a two-day-old baby to her family and begged them to look after it temporarily.

A week later, the woman said she did not want the baby anymore.

Two years later, Wong adopted a baby boy after her sister’s neighbour wanted to put him up for adoption.

Wong adopted the third baby, also a boy, not long after that as his father had died and his mother could not afford to look after him.

Her fourth son was brought to her by a woman who said her tenant had left the baby and disappeared.

Her youngest adopted son was found by her family at a rubbish site near her family’s grocery store.

“It is not easy to raise the children but I am happy,” Wong said, adding that she would not give them up.

She supplements her income by collecting recyclable items and selling fruits at the market during weekends.

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> The daily also reported that some Chinese guilds and associations, as well as businessmen had vowed to raise RM5mil for Dong Zong’s administrative department after the association’s coffers were frozen last week.

Secretary-general Poh Chin Chuan said they wanted to ensure that students who applied for the United Examination Certificate (UEC) this year could sit for the exam.

The fund will also be used to pay the salary of the administrative staff so that the Chinese education group could operate as usual at least until September, he added.

Last week, Dong Zong chairman Yap Sin Tian froze RM50mil worth of assets to prevent the rival faction from accessing them.

• Found in translation is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.