Dewar, Fannie E.

1923 - 2000
Missionary nurse
Methodist
Malaysia

Fannie Evelyn Dewar was born in Seminole, Florida, USA on February 20, 1923. She spent her childhood on a farm with her parents, five sisters and one brother. Her parents were Methodists and she attended Sunday school from a young age. Her whole family had the idea that the highest call for everyone was "to serve in any church work". She was a member of the Methodist church in the Everglades community.

Fannie went through secondary school education in the Everglades from 1937 to 1941 and continued her education at Florida Southern College (1941-1945) where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in religion with a minor in social studies. She served as the pianist in school, at church and Sunday School. She also served as a school librarian for a language course in Far East College from 1949-1950.

Fannie became a nurse and went to the Philippines in August 1950 to take up a nursing post in Mary Johnston Hospital for two years. It was her first experience as a missionary. From 1953-1955, she worked in a mobile clinic in San Mateo. At the end of 1955, she went back to the USA on furlough, and entered Emory University for further studies. From October 1956 to 1960, she was assigned to Borneo to serve among the Iban community in Kapit, Sarawak. 

Serving in Kapit
In December 1956, three weeks after she arrived, she wrote her first letter home to a friend, saying that: “So far, most of the work of the Methodist Church has been among the Chinese. Now, we are making all efforts to expand our work among the Ibans. I find a great challenge here for work.” She wrote that the church was planning for a hospital (Christ Hospital in Kapit) and a mobile clinic.

“Medical work, however, is not the only great need here among the Ibans. Very few of the people can read or write and there has been very little literature put into their language. These are two of the great needs for workers,” she said.

In her second letter to her friend written in January 1959, Fannie said she had a lot of work to complete daily to the extent that she wished there were 25 hours each day. 

In October 1958, a new double-storey school block was completed and named Winston-Salem Memorial Methodist School. It had modern facilities and she noted that the students spoke Iban, English and Mandarin.

On a hill not far from the school, the new hospital was being built. The doctor's quarters had been completed the year before and the new nurses' quarters were near completion. Dr Harold Brewster had left two years before and the vacancy had been filled by Dr Loreto Crisologo from the Philippines. In addition, there was an anaesthetist, three lady assistants, a nurse from Fort Meade, Florida, a pharmacist-bookkeeper and a lab technician. 

Mobile clinic 

During the annual conference held in Masland Church, Sibu, in December 1959, Fannie as the public health nurse reported that the mobile clinic was able to go out only six times that year owing to a boat shortage. A long boat was only purchased at the end of the year.

The new clinic and nurses’ home in Nanga Mujong were completed and officiated that year. Fannie worked in the Nanga Mujong Clinic for a week and the following week, she would go to different longhouses to dispense treatment as part of the mobile clinic operations.

She reported that during that year, Nanga Mujong clinic served 5,000 patients, 1,880 of whom were given free treatment, and eight babies were delivered. In the six mobile clinic visits, 483 patients were treated and 253 of them were given diphtheria, pertussis (also known as whooping cough) and tetanus immunisation. All of them received free treatment.

Her main duty was to go to the longhouses upstream and downstream to treat the sick. Sometimes, she had to stay in the longhouses for three or four nights, or even one or two weeks. She taught the people public health and illness prevention. When there was no doctor in the team, she would sometimes have to perform tasks like stitching up wounds. After every visit to the longhouses, she would have to take one or two patients back to the Christ Hospital with her. 

Her job was difficult as she had to sit on the floor with people crowding all around her. There was no sanitary provision and she had to bathe in the river like the longhouse dwellers. But she found satisfaction because she was warmly welcomed to the longhouses.

Other than looking after the physical health of the people, she also pastored them during evening gatherings on those visits. At longhouses where the people were not Christian, she still hoped to provide spiritual help. 

Fannie returned to the US on furlough in 1960 and went to North Carolina University for further studies.

She passed away on December 9, 2000, and was buried at Largo cemetery in Florida.

 

© SCAC. This article from Missionaries to Sarawak: Footprints in the Land of Hornbills is reproduced with permission of the Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference, The Methodist Church in Malaysia, with minor editing for clarity and brevity. 

[Missionaries to Sarawak: Footprints in the Land of Hornbills 1 and 2 are compiled by Wong Meng Lei (also chief editor), edited by Tumi Ngae, and translated by Christina Tiong, K.T. Chew, and Chang Yi. Book 2 translators are Christina Tiong, K.T. Chew, Chang Yi and Ting Kong Sing.]