Creating social impact is all about caring a little more with what you have

Reposting my sharing at Glass Dome Big Impact - Women in Philanthropy's sharing on 11 Feb 2025

My journey in the social impact space started in 1997, when I was a junior college student. Just like some of us who are still celebrating Chinese New Year these two weeks, the school organised a Chinese New Year lunch for residents from a nursing home. During that lunch, one of the residents who was much younger than the rest of the seniors (whom I later found out had special needs and no family support, under the government's destitute support programme), she held my hand and started dancing. I had a lot of fun, and felt that it was really something I enjoyed.

As a result of this, I signed up to all the community service activities in school, ranging from giving tuition at Muhammadiyah Welfare Home, visiting patients and feeding them at Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital, beach clean-ups etc. I joined the Interact Club, and some friends were very amused, thinking it was a club for social misfits, but I really enjoyed my interactions with the community. Through these volunteer experiences, I came to know True Hearts Connection, the first ground-up group that I joined. Led by Daniel Chew - 周兆鸿 (currently serving at HCSA community services) , then a fresh graduate from NTU, working at one of the big four accounting firms, and a past president of the NTU Students’ Union, he became a mentor to me. We connected junior college students to secondary school students and at 18 yrs old, I took on the role as the Liaison Director of the ground-up group. I was very honoured, at such a young age, I was given a grand title. I learned how to work with partners and sponsors, and had the chance to engage with then actor, James Lye, as the patron of our ground-up group, lending his voice as a celebrity to support the cause.

But this journey was not always smooth sailing. I have this tendency to overstretch myself. It stems from a deep insecurity that I need to do things to prove my worth and value to be accepted. It was like an overdrive and compulsive disorder. I would say yes to every opportunity to serve. I strive to do my best in both studies and community work. That led me to many episodes of ill-health, including all the psychosomatic disorders that come from a lack of ability to manage stress. I sometimes wallow in self-pity, thinking if only this physical body didn't fail and hold me back, how much more I can do? But then when I reframe, in those moments of vulnerability and isolation, I would realise that there are many others out there in the community whom I had met, they also face the same vulnerabilities and feelings of being isolated. I’m blessed and privileged to have the chance to bounce back. So I went in and out of serving the community. Sometimes, when life got too overwhelming, I disappeared, but somehow I resurface again. One key moment to this was going back to school to do my Masters in Tri-Sector Collaboration at Singapore Management University. That helped me learn about how partnerships are key, that we don’t need to do it alone. That every sector had assets and strengths to give, and that 1+1 is not just 2, but can be more than that.

So while I was still working in Civil Service College as a public officer in 2013, I thought, how about introducing community service to my colleagues, especially as we were designing course content for other public officers, and empathy and community engagement was something important. There was no one organising community service activities there yet. How about I put back on my Interact Club hat and start something. So I started with my own department, we went on an outing with some seniors living in Mei Ling St to Gardens by the Bay. But that experience was not satisfying enough for me. Everyone had fun, but the seniors who joined us were already well-engaged in activities at the centre.

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So, next year, I decided I will seek out some seniors who were not already going to the senior activity centres regularly. I got in touch with a social service agency and shared that I would like to serve seniors who may not be financially needy, but at risk of social isolation. And just a small group to start off with because I don’t know who will come along with me and I want to be able to sustain this engagement, even with just a handful of volunteers willing to commit. So they connected us with 8 seniors – some recently widowed, no family support, or may have a huge family and even a maid but none from the family visits, all living in their own purchased flats. We committed to 4 outings a year with them. Going to places like S.E.A Aquarium, Marina Bay Sands’ rooftop bar, Seletar Aerospace Park, and most recently River Hongbao 2 weeks ago. It has been more than 10 years. We started small, and are staying long. Because that was what the seniors needed. Friends who care, friends who stay. Honestly, the journey to stay long is not easy, and my fellow volunteers have dwindled over time. Many of us changed jobs, no longer with the Civil Service College, but we stay as an informal group, befriending the same seniors.

Serving the community does not just mean organising activities. It can also be something you do with those just around you. Here’s a photo of me giving my nose. This was July 2020, and we were just starting Covid-19 tests that involved putting a swab through the nose to the back of your throat. In order to ramp up capacity, community nurses were roped in to be trained and do swabbing at migrant workers’ dormitories during the outbreak in their community. In order for nurse trainers not to have to keep swabbing themselves, which could be really painful, a few of us offered our noses. We could not do the medical care work, but surely we could be helpful by offering ourselves for practise. Again, doing good does not have mean looking too far, or giving what we do not have. Look at what you have, in this case, even a nose, and that can be offered up to bring more care, more consideration for any person around us.

Creating social impact is not just about staying long or offering what we have, it is also about learning. Without continuous learning, it will be impossible to create impact. As I shared earlier, I joined a Master's programme. Through the networks there I got to know Christy Davis , who roped me in to a sharing on cross sector partnerships to other practitioners, including World Vision International’s disaster management and business development teams. Here’s a photo of the partnering bootcamp held in Phnom Penh. What I learned most, was from a group of ladies, supported by World Vision, USAID, the Cambodian dept of agriculture and other NGOs. They came together to learn how to grow chemical-free vegetables, buying seeds and materials in bulk, enjoying discounts through economies of scale, learning the right techniques for higher yield, and selling their produce to markets directly, cutting out the middlemen. With their profits, they re-invested to grow their business, but also, to set up water sanitation systems in local schools, so that children have clean water to drink. They are to me a great example of what philanthropy can do to catalyse change, to educate and equip. And they are also to me an example of what communities can do to help themselves!

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This learning led me to consider philanthropy as a profession. And here I am now. Together with my teammates, we offer the Temasek Foundation OSCAR Fund to ground-up groups – informal, unregistered individuals, who just want to do something for the community. They give their time and talent, we help them with a bit of the funding to get them started. The idea is that ground-ups provide the last mile care to their communities, without waiting for someone else to come and help them, but to find solutions from within. And here’s a photo of me. Just like in my first story of dancing with a beneficiary at my college Chinese New Year lunch, here I am, dancing with a beneficiary of Dementia & Co, one of the ground-up groups supported by OSCAR Fund. Yes I still get to dance with joy, just a while before this photo, the auntie was seated passively in a wheelchair, not confident she could join. The Founder of Dementia & Co - Alison had cajoled her to try, to stand up, to move with the music with me. Hopefully that brought some joy to her in that moment. It certainly brought joy to me.

So if you have not started on your journey yet, come, join us. Consider the OSCAR Fund. If you know of people who could benefit from this, connect them with us!

Lastly, philanthropy is not an individual effort. It requires a team. Everyone of us bring different skills and talent to add to the diversity. So here’s the lovely Temasek Foundation team behind the work, with many other partners beyond, rooting for you, the changemakers. I urge all of us to consider what we can do, to add more care to those around us who can be feeling lonely, vulnerable, or isolated. You may not know what a hello, a word to connect on common interest, sharing a little treat with your neighbour may bring.

I hope my sharing helps you consider your big impact, thank you.