MalayMail-June 22
Just a year ago, Henry Wong, was staring down at a death sentence. He was convicted for drug trafficking and at the time he did not see a way out from behind prison bars. Today, Wong is an intern at Vanilla Impact Story (VIS) Sdn Bhd — a vanilla “halfway farm” that was created by co-founder Alfred Phua.
“Before my release, I was told that I could be sent to do farming. “I wasn’t sure what it was, but I wanted to try it, I want to change my life, start over,” Wong told Malay Mail in an interview here. On July 4, 2023, Malaysia’s mandatory capital punishment was abolished. This gave Wong and other death row inmates a chance to appeal for resentencing which included commuting their death sentence to prison terms. After serving five years in prison, the 32-year-old was released and was offered a placement at VIS. It has been nine months since he was released from prison. Phua who has years of experience working with troubled youths, said these youths need more than just counselling — they need help to return to the society. “You can kick the drug using habit, but to integrate them back to the society is difficult. For them to find a job is hard.
“We work with the Prisons Department in Sibu, Sarawak and drug rehab centers and receive recommendation of releases — meaning they’ve finished the program, but where do they go?” Phua said. So Phua and his business partner created a halfway farm, they employed some of the prison releases to work in the farm as a community. “My dream is for him not just to work here, but to be a business partner — an agripreneur who can eventually train others. “He’s 32 now, and hopefully one day the younger ones will in future take over the work that we’ve started,” Phua said. It is rare to find halfway farms, Phua said, and different from halfway houses that are in the city because in cities there are still temptations. Read more at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2025/06/22/the-vanilla-farm-thats-saving-lives-inside-malaysias-revolutionary-halfway-farm-for-former-death-row-inmates/180720
