Batu Arang Welcome Community

I stumbled across the place more or less by chance. Having been to see the Batu Arang chimneys in 2006, I'd since read about a church and wanted to see it. So when I was back in Batu Arang with some friends, I decided to look for the church. Firstly we went to St. Michaels Chapel in the town,

and were told there is no other church, just the community hall up on the hill. I realised this was the place I was looking for, as I remember reading about sunsets from the site. However it seems the various blogs and internet sites were wrong, as it wasn't a church at all.

The Welcome Community is now an after-care home for HIV patients run by a Catholic group, the Catholic Welfare Services. The history of the building is interesting. It was built around 80 years ago (1920s) by the British, for use as an army mess for the garrison. Then it was occupied by the Japanese. After the Japanese left it went back to the Brits until they left. It was then run by missionaries, and in recent years was converted to a home for drug addicts and HIV patients etc.

The place was taken over by the Welcome Community in April 2008, and is bright, clean and airy. Doctors attend the residents, and foreign volunteers come from overseas to work for short periods. The beds were donated from the Assunta hospital in PJ. It has room for more than 40 inmates, although currently there are only around 37, aged between 20 and 60. They have been referred to the home from Sungai Buloh Hospital or the local prisons. However we visited on a rather unusual day, as the Muslim residents were being transferred to a new home specially set up for them. Uptil now the residents all lived in the one community, and although there are Catholic pictures on the walls, and a large crucifix on the top of the building, one room had been converted into a surau.

The people are well cared for, and many are better physically than when they arrived, due to good food, and a caring social community.

See more on Malay Mail and also Batu Arang (Star).
© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission