BY CINDY HSIAO Since the start of COVID-19, more than 800 million children across Asia have had their education disrupted due to school closures and amongst these, more than 27 million children have been waiting for more than a year to return to school. Whilst home-based learning has become the norm for some children across the region, children from vulnerable communities face inequitable challenges in accessing education and are at risk of falling further behind. With education being the top thematic area of interest and work amongst APC members, APC’s final Call for Collaboration of the year sought to provide…

BY THERESA CUA Every year, APC looks to support its members in their philanthropic initiatives across the region. However, even as COVID-19 continued to restrict travel for most of 2021, this has not prevented the APC team from convening members and guests to discuss specific issues and challenges to they face in their respective countries. Predictably, COVID-19 relief continues to be a top concern across the membership, as the Delta variant surged throughout Southeast Asia. Thus, we checked in with our members: what initiatives have they been doing for their communities during the pandemic? What lessons have they learned? Where…

BY MALEEKA HASSAN Youth mental health in Singapore has shown troubling statistics over the years. In 2017, mental illness was the primary cause of years lost to disease amongst the age group 10-34, with suicide rates on the rise.  The COVID-19 pandemic further worsened mental health issues globally, with unprecedented records of stress, depression, and anxiety. Research into the Singapore mental health landscape found a lack of population-wide initiatives in Singapore that addressed youth mental well-being and preventative measures to reduce the risk of future mental illnesses. These findings prompted APC to organise a series of dialogues on mental health…

BY SARAH TAM After this year’s COP26, where does this leave philanthropists working to address climate change? Sarah Tam, APC’s new Programme Lead for its recently-launched Climate Collective, shares her thoughts. Recently, world leaders gathered in Glasgow for the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) with one mission in mind: to keep the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5oC. Two weeks of intense negotiations delivered a new global agreement – the Glasgow Climate Pact – that aims to reduce the worst impacts of climate change. Beyond this, bold commitments were made to curb methane emissions, halt and reverse forest loss,…

BY THERESA CUA At long last: after two years, APC members were finally able to meet once again at venn last November. In a first-ever hybrid meeting, venn saw its largest gathering yet—with over 60 APC members, family, and guests coming together both in-person in Sentosa, and calling in from across the world for three days of learning, reflection, and discussion. With the pandemic creating tremendous, rippling changes across society—upending systems, reversing progress on SDGs, pushing many back into poverty—the time is ripe for reflection. What has changed? What have we learned? How do we adapt? How do we build…

BY LAURENCE LIENCHAIRMAN AND ACTING CEO I just returned from my first trip overseas in 21 months, a family vacation as far away from Singapore as I possibly could go—to enjoy city life in the East Coast of the US, and then the great outdoors in Arizona. It was a thrill to just get out. But for us, the biggest highlight of the trip was something quiet—hiking—in Sedona, with its stunning and unique rock formations. There is something innate in us, even for my sons who are total urbanites, that simply connects with nature. The best architecture in the world…