Life’s better for man who sheltered at police station
KUALA LUMPUR: When Johan Iskandar Dean Salter sought shelter at the Setapak police station on the first day of Raya, he wasn’t expecting anything more.
“I just wanted a place to rest and planned to find a job the next day,” said the 36-year-old.
But station chief Asst Supt Wee Bee Seng did more than just give him shelter.
He offered him food, pocket money and booked him a room for the next three nights at a nearby budget hotel.
He even helped Johan land a job. Now Johan works as a security guard at a construction site near the heart of the city and is determined to turn his life around.
“I plan to use this as a stepping stone to rebuild my life,” he said.
An only child, Johan said his life started going on a downward spiral when he lost his English father in 2001.
His family owned a resort in Kuantan, Pahang, in the 1990s and things went well for him then.
He graduated with a double degree in Hotel and Catering Management and Psychology at Oxford Brookes University in England.
However, the family business suffered after his father passed away.
Not long after that, the family lost everything due to some bad business decisions and they had no choice but to sell the business.
“My mother and I spent a night on the streets until some family members gave us shelter,” he said.
His situation worsened when his mother passed away in 2015 due to cancer of the uterus.
“It was time for me to strike out on my own,” he said but depression made it difficult for him to hold on to a job.
He worked as a doorman and sold snacks on the street to make ends meet.
In the past two years, he had to rely on mosques and suraus for shelter. .
Food came from soup kitchens and other well wishers.
“There were even times I contemplated suicide,” he said.
Now, with his new found spirit, his blessings have multiplied.
His former school friends at SK St Thomas in Kuantan who read his story are getting together to help him get back on his feet.
“He was a nice guy and we knew him as the gentle giant in school. We want to help,” said one of his childhood friends who only wanted to be known as Shekher.
While things are looking up, Johan is focused on doing a good job.
“I hope one day to get married. That’s what my mother would have wanted,” he said.