What Nur Sharina saw behind the gates of Henry Gurney School

These words uttered by a female resident at Henry Gurney School nearly a decade ago still linger in the mind of Nur Sharina Cik Ibrahim, a senior lecturer at a university in Cyberjaya.

The teenager had been among 10 residents who took part in Sharina’s PhD research on psychological interventions for juvenile offenders.

“Her mother came to visit many times, but the girl refused to see her. A few weeks after undergoing therapy, I was told she had changed her mind and wanted to meet her mother.

“When they finally met, the teenager hugged her,” Sharina told FMT, without revealing details of the case for reasons of confidentiality.

Henry Gurney Schools, which come under the prisons department in collaboration with the education ministry, provide formal education to juveniles undergoing rehabilitation. They operate at Telok Mas in Melaka, at Keningau and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, and at Puncak Borneo in Sarawak.

Sharina’s perception of the school’s residents changed the moment she first stepped inside the institution in 2016. She remembers feeling nervous as she passed through the security checks and tall iron gates for the first time – but what awaited her was nothing like she had imagined.

Hundreds of female residents lined up to greet her good morning. Some reached out to shake her hand; others hugged her.

“They looked just like ordinary girls. They were beautiful and polite. I still remember their hugs to this day. They felt like the hugs of children who had been lost for a long time,” Sharina recalled.

“People outside often call them bad or troubled kids. But when I went in, I saw that they were simply children.”

As part of the intervention, Sharina gave the residents diaries and encouraged them to write about what they were feeling. At first, many of the entries were filled with violence, anger and hatred.

Gradually, however, the tone began to shift.

“In the final weeks, they began writing about the future and what they planned to do after leaving the school. This change was also noticed by the school, and they asked me to return after completing my PhD to help more of those who were hurting.”

Sharina, who completed her doctorate in 2020, is currently preparing a proposal to return to the institution.

From hatred to forgiveness

According to Sharina, the therapy was designed to help residents look at their experiences differently and begin working through the trauma they had carried with them.

What stayed with her was how much things could change once they were given the space to process those emotions.

“From what I observed, many of them carried wounds stemming from a lack of love, attention or conflict within the family,” she said.

One former resident, in particular, showed Sharina how such wounds did not have to define a person’s future. That student went on to achieve excellent results in her SPM before pursuing psychology, hoping to help others who had lived through similar experiences.

“I was invited by the prison authorities to attend the student’s excellence award ceremony as her family representative. I watched her receive her scroll, and then she came down from the stage and hugged me.

“This is what I had dreamed of since the first time I stepped into the school.”

For Sharina, moments like these reinforce her belief that young offenders can rebuild their lives when they are given the right support and the chance to be seen as more than their mistakes.

The harder part, she noted, often comes after they leave Henry Gurney School and try to reintegrate into society.

“If we as adults hope for a second chance when we make mistakes, why is it so difficult to extend the same acceptance to these children?” she said.

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