Phnom Penh Corporate Photographer - Temasek Foundation - Leanghorng & Sithdara

Lives changed for good

Lim Leanghorng’s passion for social work began in 2012, when he had the opportunity to assist a group of visually challenged individuals. This was part of the Leadership Enrichment and Regional Networking (LEaRN) Programme – it gave him unprecedented access into the individuals’ lives to learn about their hopes and fears. Little did he realise that this would change his life forever.

Today, as an educator at Kent Ridge International School, Cambodia, Mr Leanghorng, 25, incorporates social work into the curriculum. “It encourages a sense of empathy, which is very important if we want to groom future leaders who understand their people’s needs,” he says.

“The LEaRN Programme opened the door to another world for me, and I’ll never forget that,” he adds. He explains that it has made him a more effective leader, and most importantly, a global educator. “We might live locally, but we should always think and work globally,” he says.

For Sea Sithdara, 28, an information technology officer at Cambodia’s Ministry of Health, the skills from LEaRN were especially useful when he graduated from college to enter the workforce. The problem-solving methods, time management skills and importance of peer-to-peer networking have been key in helping him tackle the daily challenges of day-to-day operations in his workplace.

But Mr Sithdara’s fondness for the LEaRN Programme goes beyond that. For him, the friendships made were the most significant part: in 2012, he organised a holiday trip to Seoul, Korea, with four LEaRN participants. He still has the 2011 edition of the programme magazine, well kept. He smiles warmly as he flips the pages gently, pointing out friends, mentors and roommates in the magazine’s photographs. “I remember the LEaRN Programme as if it happened only yesterday,” he muses. “It was a short four-month period, but one of the most important phases of my life.”

Participants from Kent Ridge International School and the Ministry of Health, Cambodia, in: Leadership Enrichment and Regional Networking (LEaRN) Programme by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and Temasek Foundation International

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Text by Prabhu Silvam

*More of such stories can be found in Temasek Foundation International's 10th anniversary commemorative book 'Leading Journeys: Inspirations for Asia and Beyond". 

Bangkok Corporate Photographer - Temasek Foundation

Engineer, educator, enthusiast

When Natha Kuptasthien, 45, was the department head of Industrial Engineering at the Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), Thailand, the faculty faced a problem that few engineering textbooks discuss: how to teach the subject. Students were bored. Classrooms were echo chambers. Her colleagues were losing hope.

Professor Natha, an engineer through and through, made it her mission to solve the problem. In 2012, she was introduced to the CDIO framework, which empowers educators and their students to conceive, design, implement and operate real-world solutions. She quickly grasped: education has to go beyond teaching and lecturing.

Like a hearty salad, quality education is a combination of many more ingredients – all different, all fresh. Professor Natha learnt to design curricula with multi-disciplinary activities, turned classrooms into workshops for a hands-on culture, prioritised her colleagues’ professional development and reflected on her methods through self-assessments. She shared her findings with RMUTT, which began using the CDIO approach in 2014.

The impact is gradual but great. RMUTT lecturers and professors have found a new sense of purpose – they constantly come up with experiential activities to excite students. And they receive support from a global community – CDIO puts the university on the framework’s world map. Most heartening of all? Students take charge of the classroom today. Kanyanat Maengtap, 21, an undergraduate in Textile Engineering, showcased her solutions to classmates through engaging presentations. She and her team also had free rein to teach a three-hour lesson on quality management.

Professor Natha believes that change is a series of small steps. “Don’t jump, don’t run,” she says. “Just keep walking, so you won’t get tired.” As an enthusiast in the CDIO framework, she will further expand its use in RMUTT. Professor Natha doesn’t just walk the talk. She enjoys every moment of it too.

Participant from the Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi, Bangkok, Thailand, in: Programme in the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate Framework by Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Foundation International

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Text by Wong Shu Yun.

*More of such stories can be found in Temasek Foundation International's 10th anniversary commemorative book 'Leading Journeys: Inspirations for Asia and Beyond".

Temasek Foundation - Professor V. Anantharaman

Leading with a passion to save lives

It was 16 July 1990 when Venkataraman Anantharaman embarked on his first rescue mission abroad: a magnitude 7.8 earthquake had struck Baguio town on Luzon Island in the Philippines. As the doctor leading the medical team for Operation Lionheart – the overseas rescue contingent of the Singapore Civil Defence Force – Professor V. Anantharaman flew to the disaster site immediately. There, he witnessed bodies wedged underneath buildings and the injured wailing uncontrollably for help.

Amid the chaos, a rescuer carried the lifeless body of a three-year-old girl to him. Without wasting a second, Professor V. Anantharaman cleared her airway of debris and water and attempted to revive her. She came back to life. “Instances like this underscore the importance of being prepared,” the 57-year-old says. “Had we not responded right away, the child might not have lived.”

Since then, Professor V. Anantharaman has shared his experiences in emergency and post-disaster management with various countries. Last year, he was part of a three-year programme to set up a disaster medicine training system with the University of Hasanuddin, Makassar, Indonesia, and Temasek Foundation International. The collaboration developed a framework for improved post-disaster management – one that gathers the efforts of hospitals, primary care clinics, the police, disaster rescue teams and the armed forces.

Professor V. Anantharaman will carry out a similar programme in Nepal. It will encourage an integrated health care system, which connects the government, hospitals, health care facilities and search and rescue teams together as one, so they can work side by side effectively.

After directing numerous initiatives, how would the senior consultant at the Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine describe his leadership style? “You must show passion in your work. You must show that you believe in yourself,” he says. “And if you can show passion, then others will follow by example. In the end, everyone benefits.”

Trainer from the Singapore General Hospital in: Programme in Rebuilding Communities through Health Care by SingHealth and Temasek Foundation International

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Text by Prabhu Silvam.

*More of such stories can be found in Temasek Foundation International's 10th anniversary commemorative book 'Leading Journeys: Inspirations for Asia and Beyond".

Next generation innovators - 10th Anniversary Book - Temasek Foundation International

The Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) educational framework is growing in Asia. In a regional CDIO exchange in March 2017 hosted by the Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) and Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, educators from around the world witnessed its impact – four years after the institutions adopted the framework with support from Temasek Foundation International. Today, lecturers and professors thrive with a new sense of purpose: empowering students to take charge of their own learning.

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Text by Wong Shu Yun.

*More of such stories can be found in Temasek Foundation International's 10th anniversary commemorative book 'Leading Journeys: Inspirations for Asia and Beyond".

Wang Bingfei - 10th Anniversary Book - Temasek Foundation International

Having a heart for the elderly

In her free time, Wang Bingfei, 30, likes hiking in the mountains. As a nurse and teaching assistant in geriatrics at Hebei Medical University’s Nursing College, China, she confronts a different uphill task: the number of elderly is climbing rapidly worldwide. Geriatrics specialists like Ms Wang will be at the heart of this challenge.

But if there is one thing that she has learnt from the Programme in Nursing, it is this: there ain’t no mountain too high – with teamwork.

“Nursing schools and hospitals in Singapore are well connected. The teachers and the practitioners work together to educate,” she says. “When the students are in the hospitals to learn from the practitioners, the teachers continue to observe them. The teachers and practitioners then provide feedback to one another. This sort of integrated training is the key for students to connect theory and practice – and it’s what I’m most interested in to carry out in China.”

Ms Wang can’t wait to energise her students and colleagues with the ideas she has gathered. She is also hoping that together, they can explore how hospice, home and elderly day care are vital in geriatrics, even though these aren’t medical treatments. “Geriatrics is multifaceted,” she says. “Apart from medication, providing companionship and understanding to the elderly is important too.” An integrated approach to health means the individual’s entire well-being is considered.

Ms Wang is already thinking ahead. Palliative care has been on her mind. “It’s common to talk about birth, ageing and sickness, but not death,” she says. As she discusses these health care issues with the network of friends gained from the Programme, she feels assured: the future of health care is not in one but many good hands.

Participant from Hebei Medical University’s Nursing College, China, in: Programme in Nursing by Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore, and Temasek Foundation International

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Text by Wong Shu Yun.

*More of such stories can be found in Temasek Foundation International's 10th anniversary commemorative book 'Leading Journeys: Inspirations for Asia and Beyond".