Mementos for people who share family photos

From left: Mr Shaikh Tayebali Khumusi, Mr Mazher Tayeb, Rashida Khumusi, President Halimah Yacob, Mr Naseer Ghani, secretary of the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre, and Mr Abdul Jaleel, the centre's chairman, at yesterday's event thanking
From left: Mr Shaikh Tayebali Khumusi, Mr Mazher Tayeb, Rashida Khumusi, President Halimah Yacob, Mr Naseer Ghani, secretary of the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre, and Mr Abdul Jaleel, the centre's chairman, at yesterday's event thanking those who lent family photos to an exhibition commemorating Singapore's bicentennial. ST PHOTO: GIN TAY

Thirty people who loaned family photos to an exhibition commemorating Singapore's bicentennial received mementos from President Halimah Yacob yesterday.

The photo exhibition by the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre, which was launched earlier this year, will be on till the end of the year. Admission is free.

Titled From Singapore To Singaporeans - Pioneers And Descendants, the exhibition captures the stories of pioneers who arrived on the island before 1965.

Rashida Khumusi, seven, represented her family in receiving the plaque from Madam Halimah at the centre in Telok Ayer.

Her great-grandfather Shaikh Abdul Kader Khumusi was a religious leader who came here from India in the 1950s.

A member of the Dawoodi Bohra community, he and several others got together to rebuild the mosque that had been erected for the community back in the 1800s.

Mr Abdul Kader opened the Bombay Dawoodi Bohra Community Mosque in 1959. Today, the mosque at City Hall is named Al Burhani Masjid.

Mr Abdul Kader's son, Mr Shaikh Tayebali Khumusi, 77, and grandson, Mr Mazher Tayeb, 46, were also present at the event.

Another person who received a memento yesterday was 69-year-old Madam Chin Mei Har.

The volunteer worker lent a photograph of her mother, Madam Wong Shook Fong, who came to Singapore from China in 1936 when she was only six.

Madam Wong went on to start a hairdressing salon business in the 1960s.

Goh Yan Han

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on August 18, 2019, with the headline Mementos for people who share family photos. Subscribe