Dr Mei Tan, the Admin Director of St Mary’s Agape Mission School, shares on the work that is being done among the refugee children from the school.

The year 2017 will be the 4 th year that the Cathedral has officially run St Mary’s Agape Mission School. Our focus this year includes finding new ways to reach families in the community who need help.

In 2016 we were approved by the School of Tomorrow to use the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) curriculum. We have 33 children aged 7-16 undergoing independent study. The remainder of the children, aged 3+ to 7, are undergoing a programme (ABCs for English Learners) that teaches basic phonics. The end goal is to promote them into the main group when they are ready.

As always, the heart and soul of the school lies in the relationships that bind us all together. The teachers, who, despite being refugees themselves, and who live in uncertain and stressful times, still cheerfully give more than what they could reasonably be expected to. The volunteers, who come faithfully to spend time with the children, and include Pastor John, from KL Salt and Light Church who comes to share devotions almost every day because he believes no child should be without the knowledge of Jesus. Together, we work as a team to ensure that these children are given a strong Biblical education surrounded by the love of God’s community.

Many of the families that the children come from live in situations that we would find hard to imagine. Some are from broken homes or have been forced to leave their parents and loved ones in their home country in order to have a chance at resettlement in another country under the UNHCR. They often live in poorly maintained low-cost flats that they have to rent at disproportionately high prices. Yet, they still come to school every day with a smile on their faces. I certainly would not be so cheerful if I had to walk 40 minutes under the hot sun!

Recent months have proved difficult for families. Either through increased costs of living or unfortunate medical expenses. In order to try and alleviate some of the pressure, Agape School has started the ‘Agape Precious Kids’ initiative. We invite anyone interested in contributing RM80 to sponsor a particularly needy family. This cash will be used to purchase basic necessities that the families say they need. Please do contact us at agapeschool@stmaryscathedral.org.my for more information or for a copy of the 2017 issue of our school newsletter.