Nanyang Technological University

Over the past few years, I had the fortune to travel the world to find my purpose. During this journey, I was privileged to meet hundreds of "giants" who, despite having done so much for humanity, have an ever-burning desire to give back.

One early experience which changed my life’s perspective was a visit to a Bangladeshi slum school. There, despite studying in a classroom barely 10 square meters in size, the children were more enthusiastic than any I have encountered. The founder shared that they operated on a cross-subsidization model and it just took $2 a year to educate a child. But what struck a nerve was that they could not scale their model due to the lack of capital.

This problem has grown particularly close to my heart as I proceeded to travel to and stay with >200 social enterprises. I experienced first-hand the dedication these social entrepreneurs had to giving back, often at great personal sacrifice. Unfortunately, whether it was the farms of Cambodia, the cartel-controlled villages of Mexico, or the rolling hills of Myanmar, I saw the same thing. Few were willing to provide these changemakers with capital. Through them, I saw people with much fewer resources than me, doing so much more for others and changing thousands of lives. Their actions helped me find my purpose: to be an enabler for these changemakers.

After serendipitously meeting my co-founder on a third-class train in India, we started Givfunds. Today, we lend extremely low interest loans to social enterprises so that they can grow their organisations and impact more lives. Our proprietary solution takes an eco-system level approach, leveraging on technology to provide a low-cost and accurate method of lending to thousands of social enterprises across South Asia.

To date, we have been incredibly fortunate to work with some of the largest social enterprise aggregators across South Asia. They include IIM(A), Ashoka University, UNDP, and many more. We have closed 16 deals and supported social enterprises in India and Singapore across a whole range of sectors such as education, agriculture, and energy. Since starting, our capital has helped create >$200,000 in additional revenue for social enterprises, impacting thousands of lives.

In addition to my work at Givfunds, I have played leadership roles in various non-profits and founded a profitable start-up. I am also a Rhodes Scholar, Kairos Society Fellow, Global Youth Ambassador for Education at Their World, and Nanyang Scholar.

Volunteering:

1) Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS) Alumni, Singapore -Founding Team, Dec 2014 - Present
- Grew membership to 550 members and number of events supporting adult Dyslexics by 300%
- Partnered Institutes of Higher Learning for mentoring and executive function programs
- Co-authored two books by the DAS, “Embrace a Different Kind of Mind” and “Clearly Different”
-Served as DAS conference speaker

2)Hult Prize, Singapore - Co-Country Director, Oct 2017 - Dec 2017
- Organised the first Hult Prize Singapore (largest social entrepreneurship competition globally)

3) SparkSF, California, USA - Investment and Vetting Committee Member, Mar 2017 - Jul 2017
Disbursed >$10,000 in grants to non-profits in South America, Africa, and North America

4)Youth Horizons, Singapore - President, Dec 2014 - Jan 2017
- Managed the 4-year-old non-profit, helping youths make the most of their gap year before university

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From a young age, I have been accompanying my mother to volunteer at charity organisations, participating in activities like food donation drives and fund raisers. These exposures have made me realise that doing good does not require any organised events, but instead should be a daily habit. Thus, I have always found the chance to help those around and make positive change.

Sungei Flea Market exhibition

Since the closure of the Sungei Flea Market in Singapore two years ago, I have helped out the elderly vendors who were unfortunately displaced, by helping them transit into their new locations and new life. In late 2017, I was part of a team that took part in the competition "The Future of Our Past" organised by Yale-NUS, and won funding of $10,000 to curate an exhibition to document this valuable piece of Singapore’s history. Since then, I have been regularly meeting up with the organising team and our assigned mentor to iron out the details of the event. Months of preparation cumulated into the successful launch of a two-week photo exhibition in February 2019. Apart from looking after the welfare of the vendors, I hope to generate awareness for those left behind amidst  Singapore's rapid progress. More importantly, I hope to share the entrepreneurial spirit and grit to the younger generation of Singapore.

The motivations for pursuing this cause was sparked by reading newspaper articles about the back-and-forth closure of the flea market, more importantly watching documentaries on the lives of these vendors. Sungei flea market survived the Japanese occupation, and the withdrawal of the British and many construction projects, through it all, the vendors have adapted and exhibited true enterprise spirit. Being interested in entrepreneurship, I felt that their stories were touching, and more so enriching.

Through my interactions with the vendors, I would always check on their livelihood and see if I can help to ease their transition into their new lives. Ultimately, through the means of an exhibition, to raise public awareness and serve as an appeal for our communities to be more inclusive.

Student events for Peking University Student Exchange Department
During my exchange programme in Peking University, I founded a student platform to connect foreign students to local student buddies, and arranged cultural activities for them. As I was conversant in Mandarin, it was easy for me to navigate and find interesting activities to engage in. Due to the language barrier, these foreign students had difficulty navigating around, or even finding a hospital or supermarket.

Thus, I created a Wechat platform and partnered with the Peking University Student Exchange Department. We also set up booths at the student orientation sessions to introduce our platform and get in touch with the students. Through our service, the students received tips and advice on navigating to the supermarket, police station, or the phone shops to get their mobile sim card. We then connected them to local Chinese students to help them ease into their new environment. I also organised weekly activities such as tea appreciation, Tai Qi lessons and volunteering at the orphanage to allow exchange students to immense themselves into the local culture. Over the course of six months, we successfully helped more than 500 students settle into their accommodations and brought them on cultural enriching activities.

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"Better it is to give than to receive". As a pliable adolescent, these were the words that were often impressed upon my peers and I as we embarked on numerous community service activities. As our volunteerism journey began, we went through the motion of performing the tasks assigned. However, over time, giving manifested into personal joy and meaning - I enjoyed connecting with people through volunteerism and giving back to the community in whatever way I could. Indeed, it is a privilege to be able to play an active role in serving those around me.

Soap Cycling

During my semester abroad at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), I chanced upon Soap Cycling, a student-led social enterprise, while looking for an opportunity to engage with the community in Hong Kong. I initially joined Soap Cycling as part of a management internship course in HKU and continued on as its Project Coordinator on my return to Singapore.

Soap Cycling, which was founded and is based in Hong Kong, aims to alleviate hygiene-related sicknesses and reduce wastage of soap. The soap recycling process involves collecting lightly used soap from hospitality partners, processing them with the help of corporate volunteers and distributing them to those in need, both locally and to the region. More recently, Soap Cycling also began engaging the Minority, Elderly and Youth through its signature MEY (美) Programme - a work programme that offers work opportunities to support members of the community.

Why soap? Soap is a crucial life-saving resource, especially to those who lack access to sanitation and hygiene resources. An estimated number of three out of ten (30%) fatalities in lesser developed regions are a result of hygiene problems, which could have been prevented with the use of soap. In addition, the hospitality industry metes out a toll on the environment with its disposal of largely usable amenities – one of them being soap. The students who founded Soap Cycling in 2012 saw an opportunity to pursue a meaningful social cause with soap.

While I was in Hong Kong, I worked together with a multinational team of intern-volunteers to support Soap Cycling’s day-to-day operations. Together, we were responsible for running volunteer sessions, distributing soap to our beneficiaries and raising awareness for our cause. During my time in Hong Kong, Soap Cycling ran roughly 20 sessions, seeing through 400 corporate volunteers and processing 15,000kg of soap – which would go a long way in providing decent sanitation to 30,000 children for a year. In recognition of my contributions, I was awarded the best intern of the month. It was a humbling experience to be able to witness the great work that is being done in Hong Kong.

Singapore has vast potential for Soap Cycling – it started when our hospitality partners in Hong Kong wanted to initiate a similar soap collection programme in Singapore. There are 420 hotels and 24,000 hotel rooms in Singapore – presenting an opportunity for recycling and building a sustainable supply chain of soap within Singapore and South-East Asia. Soap Cycling’s aim of expanding to Singapore was one of the draw factors for me to join them in Hong Kong – it was a cause I could continue serving even on my return to Singapore. My role as the Singapore Project Coordinator was to lead a team of interns to scale up Soap Cycling’s operations in Singapore.

Our team in Singapore is off to a good start. We have begun collecting from three hotel groups totalling approximately 300kg of soap, with talks to begin collections from two more in June. More recently, Soap Cycling Singapore has partnered the Humanitarian Organisation for Migrant Economics to distribute soap to around 100 migrant workers in Singapore, in a bid to alleviate costs. Further areas of local impact are being explored – for example, distribution to welfare service organisations that support lower-income families. The team has also partnered with Overseas Community Involvement Projects from NTU and NUS to distribute soap to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. I am looking forward to the work that we can accomplish in Singapore.

Additional Social Causes Served

Throughout my undergraduate career, I have also had the opportunity to volunteer and serve various social causes:

1) Assistant Treasurer of the Bukit Merah Youth Executive Committee. Our committee organises events to engage the residents of Radin Mas SMC. More recently, we organised a museum visit for the elderly to give them an opportunity to indulge in nostalgia and remain active.

2) Secretary and Operations Director of NBS Inflammare, a freshmen orientation programme which champions service learning as a core camp component – our team had collected S$4,500 worth of food products from the residents in Jurong West, which was donated to Food from the Heart to be redistributed to those in need.

3) Volunteer at Henderson-Dawson Interfaith Goodwill Store (IGS), an NBS-led initiative that distributes food rations and basic necessities to needy members of the community in the Henderson-Dawson area. Soap Cycling Singapore is also working on collaborating with Henderson-Dawson IGS to distribute soap to the community.

4) Mentor with The Mentoring Edge, a programme which pairs seniors and juniors up through a mentorship programme. I joined this hoping to pay it forward, having benefitted from the support of seniors.

It is indeed a privilege to serve. I remain grateful for the opportunities to serve and look forward to continuing serving with Soap Cycling and volunteer in other capacities even as the next chapter of life beckons.

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I have been actively volunteer for 9 years. These actvities has shaped me into who I am today.
Movement for the Intellectually Disabled (MINDS)

In secondary school, I was involved in the MINDS Reach-out Programme, where volunteers come together weekly to organise various activities, ranging from Arts and Crafts to Sports for the beneficiaries.  As the programme head, I was responsible for overseeing this process, ensuring the activities aligned with the objectives and values of MINDS. Coming from the southern province of Guangzhou, my knowledge and experience in Chinese culture enabled me to give the beneficiaries exposure to traditional Chinese calligraphy, painting, and beadwork as part of the programme. Most of my family, including my parents, are situated in China, and being away from them has taught me the importance of family. For many beneficiaries, their disabilities may have caused them to fall into the plight of being outcast. As such, I wanted to give them the sense of belonging, and give them a safe space where they can feel at home, surrounded by laughter and enjoyment, and most importantly, to reintegrate them into society, and allow them the same privileges and entitlements that we all have.

Science and Technology Club – Volunteers in Action
In JC, i was the leader of the Science and Tech club VIA volunteer branch. Our objective was to organise science related activities and competitions for both children in childcare and secondary school students. These events helped students see science in a whole new light, and making science fun for every participant. Not only this, but through the competitions, they also learnt the importance of core values such as teamwork and leadership, which also boosts their personal development, allowing them to grow and mature. These students are put in good stead as they are more well equipped to deal with dynamic environments and challenges of todays world. The teaching staff were also able to benefit from our events, as they were able to obtain a better understanding of their students, allowing for a more precise and tailored approach in their teaching methods. All in all, i enjoyed quality time in contributing my effort in the development of welfare of these students.

Welfare Service Club – Friends of Children
At Welfare Service Cub, I had the privilege of mentoring students from lower income group in Teens Action project (TAP). This is a weekly program where I am involve in providing academic mentoring and organising life skills activities for secondary school students. What kept me going was the unwavering supports from my volunteers and beneficiaries. The happy faces of the beneficiaries when they saw us has motivated me to continue volunteering in TAP for my 3 years in University. In addition to being active volunteer with TAP, I was also involved in the planning committee for regular service project June and December event annually.
Being a volunteer has enriched my life through greater learning experiences, friendship, memories, and being able to use my time to do what I love the most.

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