Indonesia: A Collaborative Community Development Effort in a Low-Cost Public Housing Community
During our last roundtable session in Jakarta in August, our Indonesian members converged to finalise their involvement in the Rusunawa Pinus Elok project. The project was delayed due to changes in local government involvement. For a start, GK Indonesia continues to be the overall coordinator responsible for Community Building; Tanoto Foundation will construct and build the capacity for the operations of an early childhood centre; PT Jababeka will develop a playground for children; and Victor Hartono has offered trees and plants from the foundation nursery to “green” the project. The hope is that this project will eventually become a demonstration project for community building in other rusunawas.
Singapore: A Pilot Assisted Living Facility
The Assisted Living Facility (ALF) Pilot is gaining speed. The market research projects conducted concurrently by Temasek Polytechnic’s Centre for Ageing Studies (CAS), Acorn Marketing Research & Consulting, and APC Secretariat, are reaching completion. CAS’ research has been on potential users of ALF. A significant number of respondents were positive about what an ALF would offer, even if they lacked understanding of the concept. Seniors clearly value their autonomy, while their children value safety. The next step is the convening of a task force to work on the 50-unit pilot with Catholic Welfare Services, which is due to be built by the end of 2019.
Singapore/Regional: Cross-Border Giving Guide
The recent China Charity Law that includes clauses affecting foreign and international NGOs has once again highlighted how much a Cross-Border Giving Guide will be helpful for philanthropists giving overseas. APC is finalizing a suitable research partner for the project. We believe that finding the right partner who is knowledgeable and passionate in this area is of utmost importance. For a start, the guide will likely cover Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and China.
Philippines/Indonesia: Preventing Political and Religious Extremism
Addressing rising religious extremism amongst youths was a cause brought up by our Filipino members. This is an issue that we quickly realise needs addressing in many other Southeast Asian countries too. We will be looking to start something small by partnering with NGOs working on existing programmes with youths in Mindanao and looking to tap into role models and to convene meaningful dialogues on the issue. Our key belief for this project is to tackle this with the local communities upstream before it even becomes a major security challenge downstream.
Malaysia/Regional: School Leadership Development
APC’s pilot programme to train school leaders/principals with the India School Leadership Institute (ISLI) model is gaining traction with APC secretariat participating in a second study trip in the first week of September to Malaysia with Azad Oommen, who started up ISLI and is now starting Global School Leaders, the international platform for school leadership development programmes that are delivered locally. We are also sourcing possible programme and funding partners for the pilot in Malaysia, due to start in the first half of 2017.
Regional: Talent Development in the Philanthropy Sector
Talent development continues to be a huge problem across the countries, especially in the middle to senior level. We have been in talks with various private sector and nonprofit organisations to undertake the study on how this should be better addressed on a regional scale.
Malaysia: Special Needs Education
This is a new project that has emerged from our Malaysian members, who hope to bring in effective models within our network that would be able to address this in an impactful way. APC has been engaging experts in the field in Malaysia to understand the landscape there, and will be bringing a sector expert from Singapore who specialises in a programmes on early identification and intervention to Kuala Lumpur in October to help advise the project and help the secretariat scope one or two low-cost and scalable interventions.
Indonesia: Regulatory Change in the Philanthropy Sector
APC is still unable to identify a suitable research and advocacy partner on this project, and will continue to keep this project on hold till an appropriate partner emerges who can fit into our project requirements.