Building bridges for humanity

Sep 15, 2023

KUALA LUMPUR: The Crisis Relief, Service & Training (CREST) Medical Mobile Vehicle, started in January 2022, has been an integral part of the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development (AOHD)’s medical outreach for the past year. It was used to reach out to migrant communities throughout the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, occasionally also being a medical standby vehicle on parish feast days.

AOHD had been renting the vehicle from CREST Malaysia, a non-profit faith-based humanitarian organisation registered in 1998. When the opportunity arose to purchase the medical mobile vehicle, AOHD made the arrangements to acquire the vehicle under the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur, with the plan to build bridges.

“In my tour of different dioceses, I realised that our neighbours in the Diocese of Penang were doing so much in terms of mobile clinics, especially for the migrants, and saw an opportunity to build bridges with this vehicle. It is important to support each other as we can do so much more together”, said Gary Liew, Director of AOHD.

The idea of this collaboration on a larger scale was mooted in June of this year with the two dioceses working closely towards the possibility of having this vehicle serve communities across borders.
Sept 2 saw the official handover between the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur and the Bishop of Penang. The simple ceremony started with CREST chairman, Rev Dr Ng Swee Ming, giving a tour of the vehicle and explaining the medical equipment on board which includes a full-size examination couch, ECG, Ultrasound, an Oxygen tank, a stainless-steel sink, locker drawers for medical supplies, etc to Caritas Penang and their Medical Mission team at the handing over.

This was followed by the signing of a shared agreement between Archbishop Julian Leow and Cardinal-elect Sebastian Francis and the handing over of keys.

Cardinal-elect Sebastian said that the medical mobile vehicle will be parked in a parish in Perak for the use of Medical Mission, especially dealing with the migrant communities in the area. This medical mobile vehicle will help highlight the struggles of migrants in Malaysia and the growing need to respond as church in this area.

“Today’s handing over is a very good sign of collaboration firstly from CREST and Dr Ng as we got the medical mobile vehicle from them and now as the vehicle is in the Archdiocese, we are sharing it with the Diocese of Penang. I think it is a collaboration. Wherever there is a need, this mobile clinic can be used for the different ministries,” said Archbishop Julian.

He added that while it is for the use of the Diocese of Penang, there is a mutual understanding that the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur will have access to it whenever needed, ensuring its availability for use across the entire Peninsular Malaysia region.