| Administrative History | Allocations: 1946-1958, 1974-1985. See later annual reports for any subsequent allocations.
Malaya was occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War. In 1948 the Malay League was founded as a British protectorate. From 1954 Communist partisans led a civil war. In 1957 the Federation of Malaya was formed. In 1963, Sabah, Singapore, and Sarawak joined and the country was renamed Malaysia. Singapore withdrew in 1965.
In 1946, SCF was invited by South East Asia Command to send workers to Malaya for post-war relief work. Hospital facilities were re-established and malarial research carried out. Nursery assistants were trained and sanitary facilities re-established. SCF also received permission from the colonial government to establish an orphanage for boys of different races - Chinese, Malay, Tamil, and Eurasian - at Serendah, Selangor state. This became SCF's first Asian project. As well as normal schooling, carpentry, tailoring, and agricultural activities were carried out. Attempts were made to encourage a degree of self-administration, with, for example, a boys' court.
In December 1948, the administrator of the school was killed by raiders. A new administrator was appointed who reorganised the school along the lines of a British public school. The home, which had a 'vocational bias', developed a good reputation among local employers and there were usually more jobs available than boys leaving. The home also produced on its attached farm all the agricultural produce it needed. Serendah began to receive funding from local sources and a Board of Governors was set up of local people in 1952. In 1953 an engineering workshop was set up. By 1955, local financing and profits from the boys' handiwork were contributing largely to the cost of the home. In that year, a combined tailoring and cabinet-making workshop was set up. In January 1967 the home was handed over to the Brothers of St Gabriel, who undertook to continue the work on the same lines.
In 1974 a small donation was made, and these continued until a large donation (largely of gifts in kind) in 1976, the details of which are not specified but may be connected with an Australian SCF project that was investigated but never commenced due to lack of funds. Another similar donation is recorded in 1979. Small donations continued until 1985. |