Family starts campaign to preserve and protect tigers

The tiger Awang Besul's untimely death in Terengganu yesterday has left a big dent in the hearts of animal lovers and supporters of wildlife conservation.

The five-year-old Malayan tiger succumbed to a canine distemper virus after being caught wandering around Kampung Besul Lama in Bukit Besi last Friday.

But long before the story of Awang Besul hit the media headlines, a family in Penang had begun a campaign to preserve and protect the lives of tigers, the country's symbol of bravery and courage.

Dubbed Huku Awareness Campaign, the Cheah family was inspired by two Chinese characters Lao (Hu) and Tong (Ku), meaning "sufferings of tigers".

Businessperson Lawrence Cheah said the campaign was first mooted by his wife Erina Law, who later roped in their two children, Delwina, 14 (on right in photo below), and Delwin, 16, and friend Max Yeoh, 26 (on left).

The group established the Huku movement in May and will hold their first exhibition at Kuala Lumpur's Pavillion Mall on Aug 30.

This comes after the Cheahs launched the successful Autism Awareness campaign, which involves Delwin's story, and his brave struggle with autism.

Delwin was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age five and has an IQ of 114. His achievement as the "World’s Youngest Savant Artist” to hold a solo exhibition by Record Setter in the United States in 2013 captured many hearts.

"That campaign had made an impact, directly or indirectly, on our community in Malaysia and globally as well," Cheah, 44, told Malaysiakini.

"We have seen many families, touched by our autism awareness events, coming forward to join us, with the campaign resonating with their experiences, " Cheah added.

Cheah and Erina, both 44, later noticed that Delwin was interested in wildlife conservation as he started to express his feelings about it.

He spent many hours drawing and painting wild animals and was totally immersed in his own world when he produced a series of tiger arts.

These art pieces were later printed on T-shirts, which the Cheahs sell to fund their campaign.

So far, the campaign has attracted eight celebrities, including famous Malaysian pro-green singer Zainal Abidin, songstress Nur Farhan Azizan, actor Steve Yap, national Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter and actor Theeban Govindasamy and Maria Cordero, a multi-talented celebrity from Macau.

"Delwin wanted to share his message and love for tigers to the world," Cheah said.

Delwin, who reads a lot about wild animals, often told his family that he needed to save tigers as their existence would have an impact on the ecosystem.

His biggest supporter is his sister Delwina, who excels in archery.

"This is when my wife started to dream about a tiger awareness programme, and eventually, it became our family project as we discussed it every night.

"Since we have successfully made an impact with our Autism Awareness project, Erina feels we can also do the same about endangered tigers.

"If we don't start caring now, we would see the ill effects on our wildlife and ecosystem, and we may be too late to save anyone," Cheah lamented.

The family later encouraged their friends to share Delwin's dream.

Max, an online business consultant, used his passion for wild animals to help move the campaign a notch higher, spreading the word to the Gen Y generation.

"We did not hire any scientists or forest rangers, but searched for volunteers to join us by creating educational awareness," Erina chipped in.

"All we want is to send a strong message that we need to save the tigers. They are our national icon and we do not wish to see them go extinct in the near future," she said.

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