LONDON: They may be Singaporean, but they come from different backgrounds.
And they also have a few things in common: they are below the age of 30 and all have the desire to give back to their communities.
They also have another thing in common: The Commonwealth. Two of them have won Commonwealth awards, while the other two have been elected to represent Singapore on the Commonwealth Youth Council.
These four young Singaporeans got the chance to meet and speak to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in London on Wednesday (Apr 18), to tell him about the work they have been doing. Mr Lee is in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).
These are their stories.
MAKING HELLISH PERIODS LESS PAINFUL: VANESSA PARANJOTHY
It may be a taboo or sensitive topic in polite conversations, but Vanessa Paranjothy is not shying away from talking about menstrual periods.
Vanessa Paranjothy co-founded Freedom Cups, a social enterprise that hopes to give women in underprivileged communities access to menstrual cups. (Photo: Lianne Chia)
“No one talks about periods,” she said. “But it’s a huge problem for many women around the world who don’t have access to sanitation during their periods.”
And to Vanessa, menstrual cups – which are reusable cups made of medical-grade silicone meant to replace pads or tampons during a woman’s period – is the answer.
The 29-year-old has won a Commonwealth Youth Award for her work in founding social enterprise Freedom Cups, which aims to put a menstrual cup into the hands of women who would not be able to otherwise afford one.
The Commonwealth Youth Awards recognise young people from every region of the Commonwealth whose innovative projects have had a significant impact on their communities, and Vanessa – who won for Asia – is one of four regional winners of the award.
Every woman who buys one of their menstrual cups, which is self-designed, customised for Asian women and manufactured out of the United States will result in one being donated.
“I found out about these cups through a friend who went to Guatemala for an internship,” she said. “And I realised they were the best option for women in the Third World who are experiencing hellish periods.”
“Periods are hellish as it is even in the First World, but imagine how much worse it’d be in the Third World, where you don’t have access to toilets or water.”
On top of that, she also organises projects to visit underprivileged communities in Asia to teach women about menstrual periods and distribute the cups.
To date, there are 15 projects in seven countries which have provided support to more than 3,000 women and girls.
But there is still much work to be done and Vanessa, who received £3,000 in prize money, said the money will be put straight back into the business.
“We want to get into the Rohingya refugee camps in Myanmar,” she said. “So I think this money is going to fund our efforts there.”
HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE CHOOSE THEIR CAREERS WISELY: MOCK YI JUN
Mock Yi Jun said he counts himself lucky that he had enough support and opportunities to make an informed decision when he was planning to go to university.
Mock Yi Jun hopes to help more young people in Singapore make informed decisions about their careers. (Photo: Lianne Chia)
“We had internships, talked to people in the different industries we wanted to join and could speak to seniors in school who had gone to the universities we wanted to go to,” he said. “And I realised a lot of young people in Singapore don’t have that kind of support.”
“It’s about the family you come from, whether your parents know people in the industry and even what schools you go to, because some schools have stronger career guidance support,” he added.
Looking to help other young people in this area, he co-founded Advisory, an online initiative aimed at providing young Singaporeans with the opportunity to learn about different career options. The platform provides information about different industries and career paths through a series of online articles.
All this, while juggling his studies at the London School of Economics.
Yi Jun, 21, is one of two Singaporeans who won the 2018 Queen’s Young Leader Award, which recognises exceptional people aged 18 to 29 from the Commonwealth countries. He is also a Public Service Commission (PSC) scholar with the Foreign Service.
He explained that initially, he was keen to join the Singapore Police Force, but changed his mind after trying out an attachment and speaking to people in the organisation.
“It showed me that a job that I really thought I wanted to do and make a career out of was probably not that right to me,” he said. “That was a very formative experience for me, and we want users of our site to have that kind of experience as well.”
He admitted that juggling his studies and his volunteer work can be challenging, but described the experience as “so fulfilling”.
“As each story goes up, you can share it with more people, and you hear people tell you how useful it is to find out about things they never knew existed … I’m just happy that I can help other young Singaporeans make better choices,” he said.
“If you had told me at the start of my undergraduate life that this would happen, I would have told you that you were crazy,” he added. “I wouldn’t have gotten here without the support I’ve been given.”
“I’m very thankful and grateful for this chance.”
SHOWCASING SINGAPORE TO THE WORLD: RUSYDI KHAIRUL AND EILEEN GOH
When Rusydi Khairul and Eileen Goh heard Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates speak at the Commonwealth Youth Forum on Tuesday (Apr 17), they were pleasantly surprised – and proud – to hear him single out Singapore’s education system for praise.
Rusydi Khairul (left) and Eileen Goh are Singapore’s two elected representatives to the Commonwealth Youth Council. (Photo: Lianne Chia)
“He said that no one does education better than Singapore,” said 28-year-old Eileen. “And then the other delegates started asking us about our education system.”
Both heavily involved in the work of Singapore’s National Youth Council, Eileen and Rusydi, 29, were elected to represent Singapore in the Commonwealth Youth Council (CYC) for the next two years.
The CYC acts as a coalition of national youth councils and other youth-led civil society and private sector bodies from across the Commonwealth’s 53 member countries.
And for the two Singaporean representatives, this means that they have their work cut out for them. For now, they are both involved in putting together a policy paper that lays out what the young people of the Commonwealth hope their various Heads of Government would do.
“We try to work together, see if there are opportunities for collaborations with different countries, or lobbying our own governments to act on some of these recommendations,” explained Rusydi. “So if the Commonwealth document says we should try certain things, we need to go back to our own governments and say, let’s try these things.”
But with Singapore one of only six developed countries in the Commonwealth, Eileen said the “majority need” is not that of a developed country.
To that end, they hope to contribute by looking for opportunities to share and showcase Singapore’s best practices – like the education system that Bill Gates mentioned.
“So we’re thinking of inviting the other countries to Singapore for a learning journey, where we can show them what Singapore has done, and show them our best practices which they can take and bring back to their own country,” she said.
“This is Singapore’s contribution to the Commonwealth.”
