Current condition
In use
Date completed
In the 1950s, Christian missionaries set up a Rennie"s Mill (Refugee) Camp Church Clinic. Due to the increasing need for medical relief services, the Haven of Hope Tuberculosis Sanatorium was opened on 22 October 1955. The Sanatorium later evolved into the Haven of Hope Hospital and a public hospital under the same name. A chapel built in 1961 is located nearby. Further information: https://www.hohcs.org.hk/files/guidebook_eng.pdf
Photos that show this Place
1956
1960s
Comments
Haven of Hope Early History
Junk Bay had few settlers until 1950 when the remnants of one of the Nationalist, Chang Kai Shek, armies took refuge there. From then on it became an area which attracted refugees, who came in the thousands in the 1950s and 60s and settled in shanty towns in Kowloon and the New Territories.
In 1950 the ex-soldiers were worn out in health and were desperately in need of medical care. Miss Mary Myers, an American missionary nurse from China, started simple treatment for these people from Rennie’s Mill Clinic. Gradually the work developed. Other missionaries from various countries and denominations joined in.
Many patients were found to be suffering from tuberculosis so in 1953/55* the Haven of Hope Sanatorium [1] was founded by some missionary nurses from Norway and Scotland, about a mile from the Rennie’s Mill Clinic. The wards were named originally after the fruits of the Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Gentleness etc.
The building is set in a beautiful landscape, surrounded by vegetable gardens, overlooking the bay.
Dr Peter Jenkins, who came to Hong Kong from China in 1949 and worked for the Emmanuel Church, noted that the deaconesses had no medical superintendent and so took on that role until about 1974. Three days a week he visited the refugee camp, and three alternate days the sanatorium. Not having to manage a church as his predecessor Dr Clift had done, gave him time to take on things like this.
Kwun Tong was a new town built to rehouse refugees in this area along with a hospital, the United Christian Hospital, built in 1973 by the joint efforts of the churches of Hong Kong, the Missionary Societies, and the Hong Kong Government, as an establishment worthy of this new town.
Today, the Haven of Hope has become a Hospital but it still has its Christian ethos and its work covers 4 key areas: Elderly Services, Rehabilitation Services, Health Care Services, Evangelistic Work.
* Different sources give different dates.
[1] Wikipedia states it was Sister Annie Skau Berntsen, from Norway, and Helen Wilson, a missionary from Scotland. Richard Gehman in his book says 'some deaconesses from the Norwegian Covenant Church', of whom Sister Annie may have been one.
Sources:
Let My Heart Be Broken – Richard Gehman
Baptist Missionary Herald 1974
Haven of Hope website
Wikipedia
For More Info:
The Hong Kong Hospitals Christian Chaplaincy Ministries.