Loh Siew Hong. -Screengrab from Facebook
PETALING JAYA: With a grateful heart, single mother Loh Siew Hong thanks those who helped her in her journey to reunite with her three children in an open letter.
Loh, 35, finally reunited with them after the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Loh’s habeas corpus application and ordered her children to be released to her from the Social Welfare Department’s care.
In the letter, Loh thanked a number of people who had helped her along the way.
Among them were Wanita MCA chief Heng Seai Kie and Beliawanis MCA chief Ivone Low Yi Wen, who spearheaded programmes assisting domestic violence victims such as herself.
She also expressed her gratitude to G25's Noor Farida Ariffin and activist Dr Hartini Zainuddin who helped raise funds to purchase a food truck for her to start a new business.
She also thanked Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy, Bagan Dalam assemblyperson Satees Muniandy and Seberang Prai city councillor David Marshell for taking up her case in the courts.
In the open letter, she noted that no words could describe the joy she felt when she was finally able to embrace her children for the first time after three long years.
"My three-year search to be reunited with my twin daughters and son has been a harrowing ordeal after all the physical abuse and battery, forcible separation from my offspring and being given the runaround from various quarters.
"My heartfelt appreciation to the genuinely concerned people who advised me to lodge a police report against all the assaults, to Women's Centre for Change in Penang which provided much-needed shelter and protection, as well as to the hospital staff who treated me when I was hospitalised as a result of the beatings by my ex-husband.
"Post-reunion with my children, there have been groups and individuals who have likewise extended donations and support so that we may move forward and rebuild our lives together," she said in the letter on Friday (March 4).
On March 3, Wanita MCA pledged to help Loh resettle in life through the Women Emancipation & Empowerment Agenda (2Es) programme, which is meant to help women who survived domestic abuse get back on their feet.
Loh will also be provided a food stall at Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC) to run a food business.
Besides that, her children’s education would also be taken care of with TAR UC providing them a scholarship.
On Feb 21, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed Loh’s habeas corpus application and ordered her children to be released to her from the Welfare Department’s care.
She was granted sole custody of the children by the High Court after her divorce in 2019.
However, Loh, an alleged domestic violence victim, lost contact with her children for three years after she was hospitalised.
She was later housed at a home under the Welfare Department, before moving to the Women’s Centre for Change in Penang.
Her ex-husband, an Indian-Muslim convert, took the children to Perlis and arranged for them to be converted to Islam.
He has since been arrested for a drug offence and is now in prison in Kelantan.
