(left to right) President of Hands of Hope Yap Li Xuan and Chairperson Lee Jia Lynn.

1973 Miles ended with a huge round of applause.

Most of the cast members were first-time performers.

The evening of 19 October 2019 was indeed a delightful one, especially for Hands of Hope Malaysia –co-founded by three UCSI alumni (Suzanne Ling, Lee Swee Lin and Kim Lim) under the UCSI Scholars Circle in 2014.

The project instils volunteerism among youth in reaching out to under-deserved communities – as well as the refugee community schools that have worked closely with them. Months were spent on turning 1973 Miles, a musical theatre showcasing a tale of tragedy yet resilience with a dollop of hope between two refugee brothers from conflict-torn Myanmar, into a huge success.

The event, which took place at Le Quadri Ballroom of UCSI College, began at 7.00pm with a choir performance by students of Ruth Education Centre, one of the beneficiaries of Hands of Hope.

Delivered in English, with few lines in Bahasa Malaysia, audience were brought first to the scenes in Myanmar where two brothers – who are the main characters of the story – Matthew and Thomas (played by Chris and Thang Sang respectively), were forced to leave their families following a military attack to a safe refuge.

The young boys were brought by human smugglers into the deep jungle of their homeland, before crossing the border into Thailand by foot and on wheels, and finally making their way towards Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Weaving together tales of hardship, hope and belonging, 1973 Miles – which was the fifth musical play organised by Hands of Hope – captivated the audience with its combination of humour, lively dancing and soulful singing.

The charity event was a success as RM34,460 were raised from the ticket sales and financial contributions were made by Dato’ Lee Tian Hock from Matrix Concepts, Wong & Partners, and Mr Kelvin Yong from Yong Family Charity Trust.

The proceeds were channelled to beneficiaries Ruth Education Centre and Matu Student Organization – both run by the Myanmar refugee community. Currently, UCSI University students Yap Li Xuan (Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science and Finance) is the president of Hands of Hope and Lee Jia Lynn (Bachelor of Science in Food Science with Nutrition) is the organising chairperson. 

“Hands of Hope actually provides a volunteering platform for university students, where the volunteer as teachers to share their knowledge with underprivileged children. Currently, our focus group is the refugee children”, said Li Xuan.

“Our ex-committee members also organised a charity musical night the previous year but this time around, there’s more drama and music, added with some dance elements,” quipped Jia Lynn.

For Li Xuan, everything came together at the last minute.

“Preparation for the event wasn’t very smooth until the final rehearsal just before the event. The actors forgot their lines, what to do next and so on. We were quite worried to the point that we weren’t able to eat anything but the night turned out really well. Everyone was so confident on stage and performed wonderfully!” she said.

“It took us eight months to prepare 1973 Miles. We started with drafting the script because the entire story was written by our committee members. And then we edited it. Many of the members from the programme team did not study drama; some of them come from the engineering, IT and biotechnology fields,” shared Li Xuan.

According to Li Xuan, in spite of that, they were still able to write a great story and run the training and rehearsals among themselves.

“For the last few months, the performers had to be trained every weekend from morning until evening. It was quite a big effort. Most of the actors are first-timers, except for the main character, Matthew, but they were really confident and not afraid of crowds,” said Li Xuan.

When asked what they plan to do with the funds, Jia Lynn said that the funds will be channelled to a sponsor-a-child project, which is something like a scholarship where they receive the application from the school principals (of the eight refugee schools that partner with them) for those who can’t afford the tuition fees. The applications would be screened before deciding how much sponsorship each person receives for their education. The sponsorship will be awarded to several children.

“Actually, I didn’t know that there was a community of people called refugees at first. I used to think that they are all illegal workers. Working closely with them has been quite a touching experience for me and I have learnt a lot from them,” said Li Xuan.          

“Most of them want to work as doctors or singers just so they can make everyone happy or even help other communities. Some people may think that refugee kids are similar to illegal workers but they are actually not. They are people, too, and they are children with dreams. It’s just unfortunate that they are not as privileged as the rest of us. I think everyone deserves an education,” she added.

For Li Xuan, it has been about three to four years now since she has been with Hands of Hope. She was a volunteer during her foundation year, and has been part of the committee since 2018. Jia Lynn joined Hands of Hope in 2017. Both students are driven by the motivation to help those in need in any way they can and hope to provide them with a better future thought education.