Jean Tan
Executive Director
Singapore International Foundation
ith so much upheaval across the world, there has never been a more urgent need for communities to come together to collectively address shared challenges. Take climate change, for instance. Dr Winston Chow, the first Singaporean co-chair of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, emphasises the need for mutual learning and building alliances to resolve environmental issues decisively, in this issue. A similar view is echoed by Singaporean entrepreneur Jaspal Sidhu, whose award-winning schools in Asia seamlessly blend Singaporean and local values, reflecting the unique cultural contexts in which they operate.
Community focus and collaboration remain pivotal in many Singapore-led initiatives, both locally and globally. Singapore International Foundation’s (SIF) Citizen Ambassador Dr Jared Ng’s work with his peers in Cambodia to uplift the country's mental healthcare exemplifies this approach. In another instance, two Singaporean doctors work with a Timor-Leste non-governmental organisation to raise the standards of its healthcare capacity.
Further afield, a Singapore non-profit works to empower the displaced Yazidi community in the Middle East. At the same time, youths from Singapore and abroad drive change through grassroots initiatives and technology. Find out what motivates them to embark on their meaningful journeys.
Our Better World, the SIF’s digital storytelling platform, highlights more of such collaborative efforts. Read about a community-led effort to care for fellow residents in a neighbourhood in Singapore, offering kinship to low-income senior citizens living alone, and a non-profit in India that works with local communities to prevent child marriages.
We hope you will be inspired by these stories of positive change as we look forward to the coming year. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful start to 2024!