FROM BOOKIE
A simple request from an employee turned into a friendship that built an orphanage
to Philanthropist
It was 1998 when Maria Teresa Santa told her employer, Thomas Wee, that she was gathering together unwanted clothes and food to send to her village back in the Philippines. Without hesitating, he gave her some of his old belongings. Maria Teresa, who lived in Singapore and was Thomas’s housekeeper, packed the items into a brown cardboard box, and posted it off.
This one box would kickstart a new venture for Thomas and Maria Teresa, that would change both their lives and more importantly, the lives of orphaned children living in Lalakhan village, in the municipality of Santa Maria, Bulacan, north of Manila.
After the success of the first box, Maria Teresa prepared and sent another box back to Lalakhan, home to around 5000 people, who eke out
a living working in rice and poultry farms, as well as food-processing factories. Sending a box of clothes and food quickly became a monthly ritual. At the time, Thomas had built a thriving business empire, and was starting to think that, after 40 years making money, it was time to focus his energies and skills on something different.
After finishing his secondary education at St Joseph’s Institution in 1957,
Thomas worked as a photographer in the mortuary at the Singapore General Hospital. Then he was transferred to the hospital’s vast X-ray department, where he stayed for 13 years.
“I was very free in the evenings and mornings,” he recalls. “I was idle and there was nothing to do. Some of the staff would bet when they played gin and mahjong. Sometimes they needed extra cash and I would lend it to them. They would give me a cash cheque for $100 – dated on their pay day – and I would give them $90,” he says.
When his time at Singapore General Hospital came to an end, he became a street bookie. Business grew quickly and gave him an attractive income, which meant he was able to invest in other businesses.
Known among the colourful characters of the city’s Chinatown district, Thomas wanted to build a business away from gambling. Initially, he went into the food business, supplying lunch boxes to homes and offices, which soon expanded into a catering business. With the capital from this business, he set up his own hotel. “I went to Indonesia and saw an opportunity to invest in the hotel industry,” he says.
Thomas started an 18-room budget hotel in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan island, Indonesia, a popular resort island for locals and tourists from neighbouring Singapore. Within ten years, he’d set up three hotels. “I had everything I wanted, such as expensive cars and watches, but there was not much happiness,” he says. It was around this time that Maria Teresa was putting together her first box of food and second-hand clothes. Over the next two years, Maria Teresa continued sending boxes with Thomas pitching in donations. Then, he decided to go and visit
“I DECIDED THAT HELPING THOSE CHILDREN WAS MY CALLING”
Lalakhan village to meet the people his small donations were helping – and was shocked by what he saw.
“I saw about 20 people, including 14 homeless children Maria Teresa had taken in, living in a small bamboo room on stilts with pigs below,” Thomas recalls.
Soon after his visit, Thomas developed excruciating pain in his right leg and thought he may not be able to walk again. “I had to walk with walking sticks. I could not even kneel. The doctor said I needed an operation,” he says. Fortunately, a few months later, Thomas was walking again. He was profoundly affected by this experience and it made him re-evaluate his life. “I decided that helping those children was my calling,” he says.
Thomas gave Maria Teresa a thick gold chain to sell at a shop at Toa
Payoh, north of Singapore. It sold for $9000. He raised another $190,000 by selling his Mercedes-Benz car and a hotel in Indonesia. He even sold his five-room flat and moved in to live with his son. With the cash, he built a new building for an orphanage. Maria Teresa returned permanently to her village to manage the orphanage, which was formally registered as the Willing Hearts Orphanage, Inc, in 2008. This allowed the orphanage to work closely with local Philippines social welfare authorities to identify children at risk.
Today, the orphanage is home to 18 children and takes care of 16 orphans living with relatives, providing the children with food and education. It also operates a weekly soup kitchen for 300 malnourished children in the area. The orphanage has grown from
the initial one employee to eight fulltime staff, including a social worker.
“There is still a lot to do,” says Maria Teresa, who heads the orphanage. “There is a lot of poverty and people are not educated to get jobs. I am from this area and know how difficult it is.” The orphanage takes in children who are found abandoned or begging in the streets, usually aged between four to 12, and gives them a safe and caring environment to live in. But providing hope and empowering children to have their own dreams may be the greatest gift the orphanage offers.
Three years ago, Thomas and Maria Teresa found a ten-year-old boy sleeping alone at a market stall at night. “He looked like he had not changed or showered for days,” says Maria Teresa. “He was all muddy with long hair.”
The next day, they went about the village searching for the boy’s relatives and found his grandfather. The old man was the boy’s only living relative, and he gave his permission for the boy to live in the orphanage. The boy adjusted well to the new environment and now talks about becoming a priest to help those in need. Another girl who grew up at the orphanage is currently completing an accountancy degree at a local university. She returns to the orphanage every Monday to help out.
To help cover operating expenses, Thomas runs a thrift store, St. Isidore’s Centre, in Singapore and another in the village. The centre also sends thrift boxes to the Philippines, with clothes and food, which people can sponsor. Thomas also organises groups, mainly from Singapore, for homestays and visits to the orphanage.
A few years ago, Thomas started to help manage an orphanage in Bintan. He leads groups every month for those interested to visit this orphanage, which is run by two nuns. “The group stay in a nearby hotel but they must have a meal with the children,” he says. “When people see the place, it is simply humbling.”
At 78, while he no longer has the material signs of wealth and status, Thomas has no regrets. “Every time I see the children happy, I feel happy,” he says. “It is a blessing and humbling. I don’t celebrate my own birthday but I take the children out to fast-food places like Jollibee to celebrate theirs,” says Thomas. “We try to give them an environment where they can be ‘ normal children’.”