A refuge in school


David ST Loh

OPERATING from a small rented shop lot at the Gangsa Business Complex in Alor Star, Kedah, the Catholic group New Thessalonian Apostolate (NTA) has been running a free school for refugee children and others denied a formal education since 2012.

There are about 100 children studying at the school, including five- and six-year-olds are placed in a preschool class.

The older children attend English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mathematics, Science and Islamic lessons taught by volunteer teachers, among them Fulbright English teaching assistants.

Most of the children are Rohingya, and the others are of non-Malaysian mixed parentage.

NTA, which was originally founded in Kuala Lumpur to help victims of abuse, gangsterism and human trafficking, today also has a nutrition and advisory bureau, emergency and medical aid, and vaccination and stewardship programmes. – August 10, 2018.


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