Sister Sabria from Johor serves needy in Montreal

KUALA LUMPUR: Between running a women’s shelter and cooking for eight mosques and two churches in Montreal, Canada, Malaysian-born Sabariah Hussein is a busy woman.

But the 70-year-old, better known as Sister Sabria, says she is happy with her work.

“What I’m doing in feeding the poor is to serve Almighty Allah, and I’ve never expected anything in return,” she said.

Sabariah, who was born in Johor Bahru, migrated to Canada 32 years ago and is now well-known for her charity work in that country.

She runs the shelter, called Our Second Home, from her own house. The food she cooks for the mosques and churches is distributed to the poor and homeless in those areas.

“I started my charity work after moving to Canada by distributing curry puffs in small amounts to the mosques near where I live,” she said.

“This small gesture eventually opened my eyes to expand my charity work when I saw that many people needed my help,” she told Bernama when met at a public talk organised by the Putra Business School of Universiti Putra Malaysia, near here, yesterday.

Sabariah, a retired special education teacher, also recalled an incident in 2004 when, after collecting contributions for tsunami victims in Indonesia, she slept for three days without realising she had sustained a mild stroke.

According to her doctor, she said, she had actually been in a coma for those three days.

Sabariah grew up as one of 20 siblings, 14 of whom were adopted.

She said their parents had always taught them to share their “rezeki” (good fortune) and love one another. This in turn fuelled a desire in her to serve society.

“Although my father was only a schoolteacher and did not earn a high income, he was willing to take care of my adopted brothers and sisters,” said Sabariah, who is the third child among six biological siblings.

She said as people of the Islamic faith, Muslims should always work together to do good so as to give a positive portrayal of the Muslim community.

Sabariah’s charitable activities can be viewed on the Sister Sabria Foundation Facebook page. -FMT