The Life Of A Hostel Warden

Some of our wardens at a warden retreat earlier this year. 

There are some things in life that you can’t fully prepare for. You can read as many books, plow through the internet and consult friends, yet nothing prepares you for the moment when it happens. For example, when you become a parent. The sleepless nights, the undivided attention demanded of you, the meltdowns and sick days, the unspeakable joy and candid moments, the friendship problems and teenage issues - the list never ends. When you become a parent, you commit yourself to journey with your child through thick and thin. 

Now imagine if you had 10, 20 or even 30 children under your wings? That’s a glimpse of what it’s like to be a warden. At Starfish Malaysia Foundation, we hire wardens (aka house parents) to run our hostels. They provide care and guidance to the students, cook and clean for them and ensure that the hostel is a safe, clean and conducive place for the students to live. It’s not an easy task and definitely not a 9-to-5 conventional job.

Our wardens need to have the organisational skills to manage budgets and schedules, housekeeping skills to make sure the hostel is in order, inter-personal skills to build relationships with the students, parents, the local community and school, discipline and commendable character to ensure that the students have good role models to follow after and maturity to make right decisions when called for. 

Essentially, our wardens are guardians to our hostel students - 24/7. And just like becoming a parent, nothing quite prepares them for this role. In fact, there is no degree or course that you can take to qualify you for this. They learn on-the-job, through trial and error and a lot of grit. Honestly, this is not a job for everyone, it’s an arduous (but extremely rewarding) role for those who don’t see this as a job, but as a new lifestyle. 

Our wardens have said, in their own words:  

“At one point, I felt like quitting - but I know this is my calling and I can’t just call it quits.” 

“I want to give back to my own community.” 

“I love the children like my own.”

Their long-sighted vision has earned them the role of a warden. Their reward extends beyond salaries, bonuses, and incentives because they have the wonderful privilege of shaping lives for the future. 

No man is an island and we work as a team. Here are some practical ways we have put together to support our wardens. If you’d like to be part of this support network, get in touch with us: 

• Create a trusted community of wardens around Sabah to share thoughts, ideas, and encouragement 
• Have volunteers come in to help in the day-to-day running of the hostel (eg. cook, clean, tutor, etc). We require volunteers to stay for a minimum of 2 weeks. 
• Pray for them and with them 
• Build a friendship with them wardens and encourage them from afar. Get to know them and their families. 

About Starfish Foundation Malaysia’s hostels: 

Rural Sabah is still very much inaccessible or hard to get to. As a result, children and youth fail to attend school regularly and some remain illiterate. Hostels are built as a boarding facility because:

• Government secondary schools are usually located near regional towns and students from the interior villagers have to travel (usually walk) many hours each way to and from school. During rainy seasons or harvest season (when their parents require them to help in the fields), attending school is a major struggle, resulting in a high number of dropouts.
• There are existing government-owned hostels but the number of places at these hostels are very limited. For example, at SMK Pingan Pingan in Pitas school population is about 900+, the present school hostel can only accommodate 150 students. More than 700 students at this school are from village families and a majority of them are still in need of a place to stay.