Latest news with #TemasekFoundation
Barnama
27-05-2025
- Health
- Barnama
TAFF, IIUM And Temasek Foundation To Collaborate On Maternal, Child Health Initiative
By Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz SINGAPORE, May 27 (Bernama) -- The Tunku Azizah Fertility Foundation (TAFF) and the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) will collaborate with Singapore's Temasek Foundation to develop a maternal and child health initiative to be piloted in Pahang. Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah, who is also TAFF founder and life president, described the From Womb to World initiative as a timely and vital effort to empower mothers and families through a complete ecosystem of care, support, and empowerment. bootstrap slideshow 'We know from science and faith that the first 1,000 days of life -- from the moment of conception to a child's second birthday -- are a sacred window of growth and development. It is in these tender beginnings that a child's body, brain, and spirit are most open to shaping. 'When we nurture these early days with love, care, and protection, we set the course for a lifetime,' Her Royal Highness said in her address during her visit to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) here on Tuesday. Tunku Azizah, who is also IIUM Constitutional Head, expressed hope that the initiative could later be expanded to other parts of Malaysia and explore potential synergy with other esteemed institutions like the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Temasek Foundation executive director and chief executive officer Ng Boon Heong said the foundation welcomed the opportunity to partner with TAFF and IIUM on the initiative, which could offer a powerful pathway to nurture life at its formative age. 'Through this partnership, we believe we can co-create a meaningful model of maternal and child health, one that honours both evidence and cultural traditions,' he said. During the visit, Tunku Azizah was briefed on Temasek Foundation and KKH's collaborative programmes that champion early childhood intervention and couples' support to uplift families and strengthen communities, such as the KK Human Milk Bank, KIDS 0-3 programme (now called KidSTART), and Project ARIF.
AsiaOne
22-05-2025
- Science
- AsiaOne
Cool paint, clean power: These are the sustainable innovations that Temasek Foundation are backing for $2m, Singapore News
Imagine a Singapore where our buildings stay cool 24/7 without turning to air conditioning. What if I told you we could also run entire industries where electricity is powered by hydrogen - a sustainable, clean energy source that primarily produces water as a by-product - as opposed to harmful greenhouse gases as we burn through fossil fuels? Temasek Foundation has granted $2 million in catalytic support to turn these ideas into a reality for Singapore. Earlier in May, eight finalists presented a case for their disruptive technologies to address the pressing environmental challenges that plague the world including Singapore: firstly, adopting decarbonisation strategies to minimise adverse impact on the environment, and second, creating a cooler earth where people and nature can thrive. The winning teams were Krosslinker from Singapore, recognised for their energy-saving and cooling aerogel paints, and Ayrton Energy from Canada, whose technology makes it cheaper, easier and safer to transport hydrogen as a clean energy source. We spoke to the winners of The Liveability Challenge 2025 to find out more about their journey to developing their innovations, and their plans to scale their impact with catalytic funding. Dr Gayathri Natarajan, CEO of Krosslinker, grew up in Chennai in India, where temperatures are hot and humid all year long. Fifteen years ago, she moved to Singapore to complete her PhD in Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering at National University of Singapore. "I grew up in a region that's hotter than Singapore... I have always lived in hot regions," she said with a hearty laugh. This gave her an acute understanding of the real-world impact of urban heat and how not everyone can afford to beat it, with segments of society like construction workers having to toil in the relentless sun. "For me, why you do something could be more important than what you do," she remarked. Her lived experience, great passion for material sciences and chemical engineering, and her natural go-getter personality inspired Dr Gayathri to start Krosslinker, specialising in transformative aerogel technologies to deliver high impact solutions. Plans for cool paints to coat commercial buildings, data centres in Singapore Krosslinker's winning solution of cooling aerogel paints responded to The Liveability Challenge's Cool Earth theme, as they presented a viable solution to heat mitigation with a pilot in Singapore as a global reference. The product has already been tried and tested. In partnership with a leading insulation company in Abu Dhabi, the paint was put to test under extreme desert conditions. A storage container was coated with Krosslinker's proprietary aerogel paints, and measurements of the ambient and surface temperatures were taken. In contrast to the control containers, a maximum reduction of close to 30-degrees celsius in surface temperature was achieved with Krosslinker's paints. Since their presentation and win at The Liveability Challenge, the Krosslinker team has garnered the attention of many commercial partners who have expressed interest in harnessing their transformative innovation. "This is the best outreach we could have asked for," Dr Gayathari remarked, acknowledging the level of credibility and visibility of Temasek Foundation's backing has given their cause. While the team expressed a keen interest in working to coat data centres, commercial buildings and even HDBs, they are assessing their current standing to see where they can deploy their resources to deliver the greatest impact for better liveability, sustainability and economic viability. 'Tackle the hard problems first' When it comes to decarbonisation, sometimes progress means looking the other way - not in ignorance, but to explore alternative solutions. And that's exactly what the team at Ayrton Energy did. "Our vision for the company is to see hydrogen achieve broad adoption," the team shared with an earnest belief that hydrogen energy could be adopted as the diesel of tomorrow. Hydrogen is widely recognised as viable clean energy - so why aren't we all using it? "The biggest challenge is getting hydrogen to site," Dr Brandy Kinkead, founder of Ayrton Energy presented as her opening note at The Liveability Challenge, detailing how its costs and logistical challenges have put up barriers to widespread adoption. And while a great deal of investment and research has gone into hydrogen production, less attention has been paid to how hydrogen is stored and transported. Ayrton Energy's puts forth a product that addresses exactly that, looking to overcome the large barrier of hydrogen distribution and allow for lower cost, easy-to-manage hydrogen storage to transport globally. As a company, Ayrton's philosophy is to "tackle the hard problems first", believing that their breakthrough has been propelled with a high-performance team and strong network of support from partners and funding providers. Different energy, same storage solutions Ayrton Energy's proprietary carrier oils enable delivery of hydrogen using the same infrastructure as traditional fuel. At the site of hydrogen production, hydrogen is chemically bound to its carrier oil, with bound hydrogen transported and stored as a room temperature liquid, like how companies would typically transport diesel. At the site of hydrogen use, hydrogen is then safely released from the carrier. With this technology, Ayrton enables a much simpler transportation process with no need for high-pressure tanks, cryogenic cooling, or specialised transport equipment, allowing industry partners looking to make the switch to more sustainable energy sources to do so seamlessly. "Ayrton Energy is excited to support Singapore in their sustainability goals through providing cost-effective long duration and long-distance storage and transport of hydrogen," the team noted. It plans to leverage on funding from The Liveability Challenge's to pilot its use in Singapore to deliver zero-emissions energy. The Liveability Challenge incubates ideas for impact Now in its eighth edition, The Liveability Challenge presented by Temasek Foundation is a global sustainability innovation competition that allows for crowdsourcing of global innovations to benefit Singapore and the greater environment. "We are excited about scaling impact and enabling mass adoption," commented Dr Gayathri on her team's win, hopeful that on top of delivering a sustainable solution, the product's economic incentive with projected energy savings will create a win-win situation for its partners. "At Temasek Foundation, we believe in the urgency of supporting bold and deep-tech innovative solutions that can drive real progress in decarbonising our planet, and keeping our environment cool even with rising temperatures. Our catalytic funding reflects this important commitment - helping innovators move from promising innovations to operational prototypes with potential to scale," said Heng Li Lang, Head of Climate and Liveability at Temasek Foundation. Past winners of the challenge included Equatic, which sought to build the world's largest ocean-based carbon removal plant in Singapore, as well as CricketOne, which addressed food resilience through a low-carbon, crickets-based protein for human consumption. READ MORE: 'Anyone who has eaten today should care about the food that we're eating': Climate changemakers delve into disruptive solutions for food security and carbon emissions in Singapore This article is brought to you in partnership with Temasek Foundation.
Straits Times
12-05-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Boost for fund supporting new non-profits that help school dropouts, the vulnerable
The graduation party for the 2022 cohort of students at Starfish Singapore. PHOTO: PROJECT STARFISH Without Starfish Singapore, Ms Nur Syafizan Mohamed Rasid would have never passed her N levels and go on to ITE. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH Boost for fund supporting new non-profits that help school dropouts, the vulnerable SINGAPORE - In Secondary 3, Ms Nur Syafizan Mohamed Rasid dropped out of school owing to anxiety, depression and a sense of hopelessness. After spending several months at home, she began free tuition classes with non-profit group Starfish Singapore to prepare for the N levels as a private candidate. One of four children raised by a single mother working as a canteen stall assistant, Ms Syafizan, now 23, said: 'Starfish gave me the only hope to fix my life and succeed.' Starfish is a grantee of the Temasek Foundation New Horizon Fund. Philanthropic organisation The Majurity Trust started the fund in 2021 to support new non-profit or ground-up groups with three-year seed funding of up to $150,000 each. Temasek Foundation, the philanthropic arm of investment company Temasek, is the fund's latest anchor partner. In late March, Temasek Foundation announced it was committing $1.1 million over five years to the Temasek Foundation New Horizon Fund and the Oscar Mentoring Programme. This is to expand efforts to start, grow and scale the ground-up movement in Singapore. The Oscar Mentoring Programme is a partnership between Temasek Foundation and social enterprise Empact, where leaders of ground-up groups are matched with mentors from various sectors to receive guidance on growing their organisations. The Majurity Trust's senior director of philanthropy Charles Tan said the fund was launched to support new ground-up groups or non-profits as such new outfits find it hard to attract donors even though they play a crucial role in meeting emerging or unmet needs. The fund was earlier known as the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund, which was named after its previous anchor donor, the TL Whang Foundation, which gave it $1 million. TL Whang Foundation is the registered charity of Lam Soon Group, which is known for its consumer goods such as the Knife brand cooking oil. Nine groups have already received funding from the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund. These include Impart, Happee Hearts Movement and KampungKakis, which matches volunteers with isolated seniors who live near them for befriending support. Impart helps at-risk youth, while Happee Hearts Movement provides health services to adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. BapaHebat SG is another recipient of the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund. The non-profit group, whose name means 'awesome dad' in Malay, was set up in 2021 and runs a range of programmes for fathers. Its co-founder Jamsari Ahmad, an information technology professional, said a large part of its work involves helping fathers in jail bond with their children. For example, it runs a 12-session programme for incarcerated fathers to help them communicate with their children and repair their relationships, which are often strained as many of these fathers are not physically or emotionally there for them, Mr Jamsari said. The group also runs father-child bonding activities and 'teh tarik with dads' sessions where fathers gather to share their experiences and support one another, among other things. Mr Jamsari said it is a secular group which works with fathers from all races and religions, although it has programmes that are designed specifically for Malay-Muslim dads. He said BapaHebat received $150,000 over three years from the fund, and the money played an instrumental role in allowing it to pilot new programmes and pay for operational costs. The group is currently run by volunteers, and it does not have any full-time staff yet, Mr Jamsari said. He added: 'It is very difficult to get funding as we are an unknown entity, and donors are more interested to give to the youth, elderly and educational causes.' Besides giving monetary support, The Majurity Trust has also helped the group such as by linking them to mentors and networking opportunities, and capability-building workshops, Mr Jamsari said. The Majurity Trust's Mr Tan said the latest partnership with Temasek Foundation will enable the fund to support more groups and help new grantees boost their capabilities, such as through a mentoring programme. For example, Starfish's partnerships and communications manager Vickland Kaamela Barvin said the fund enabled the group to hire its first two full-time staff and pay for other operational expenses. The group used to be run entirely by volunteers, who still include tutors. Two former colleagues at a private school, Ms Siti Yariyati and Ms Ritu Machanda, and research fellow Andrew Schauf started Project Starfish in 2015 as they realised that many school dropouts could not afford the fees at private schools that prepare them to take the national examinations as private candidates. Many of these dropouts were from the Normal stream. So Project Starfish – now Starfish Singapore – started a nine-month-long free tuition programme to prepare these young people to take the N levels. Ms Vickland said many of the young people they teach drop out of school at the age of 14 or 15 and, without an N-level certificate, many take on gig jobs, for example, as delivery riders, or join the food and beverage sector. She said: 'There's a perception that absenteeism (from school) equates to naughtiness and laziness. To some extent, this is understandable, but such labelling affects their sense of self, and the reasons why they drop out are multifaceted. 'They have family issues, mental health struggles and some get involved in criminal activities. But many of them have bigger dreams for themselves, and they want to pursue further education.' Ms Syafizan attended classes at Starfish one day a week for English language, mathematics and science for about nine months, while she held a job at McDonald's. She eventually passed her N levels and later completed a Nitec course in electronics, computer networking and communications at the Institute of Technical Education. She is now pursuing a diploma in audio production at her 'dream school', Lasalle College of the Arts. 'Everyone at Starfish is so kind and caring, and they care about every single young person who comes through the programme,' she said. 'I would never have got to where I am now without Starfish.' Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
New Paper
11-05-2025
- Business
- New Paper
Boost for fund supporting new non-profits that help school dropouts, the vulnerable
In Secondary 3, Ms Nur Syafizan Mohamed Rasid dropped out of school owing to anxiety, depression and a sense of hopelessness. After spending several months at home, she began free tuition classes with non-profit group Starfish Singapore to prepare for the N levels as a private candidate. One of four children raised by a single mother working as a canteen stall assistant, Ms Syafizan, now 23, said: "Starfish gave me the only hope to fix my life and succeed." Starfish is a grantee of the Temasek Foundation New Horizon Fund. Philanthropic organisation The Majurity Trust started the fund in 2021 to support new non-profit or ground-up groups with three-year seed funding of up to $150,000 each. Temasek Foundation, the philanthropic arm of investment company Temasek, is the fund's latest anchor partner. In late March, Temasek Foundation announced it was committing $1.1 million over five years to the Temasek Foundation New Horizon Fund and the Oscar Mentoring Programme. This is to expand efforts to start, grow and scale the ground-up movement in Singapore. The Oscar Mentoring Programme is a partnership between Temasek Foundation and social enterprise Empact, where leaders of ground-up groups are matched with mentors from various sectors to receive guidance on growing their organisations. The Majurity Trust's senior director of philanthropy Charles Tan said the fund was launched to support new ground-up groups or non-profits as such new outfits find it hard to attract donors even though they play a crucial role in meeting emerging or unmet needs. The fund was earlier known as the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund, which was named after its previous anchor donor, the TL Whang Foundation, which gave it $1 million. TL Whang Foundation is the registered charity of Lam Soon Group, which is known for its consumer goods such as the Knife brand cooking oil. Nine groups have already received funding from the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund. These include Impart, Happee Hearts Movement and KampungKakis, which matches volunteers with isolated seniors who live near them for befriending support. Impart helps at-risk youth, while Happee Hearts Movement provides health services to adults with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. BapaHebat SG is another recipient of the Lam Soon New Horizon Fund. The non-profit group, whose name means "awesome dad" in Malay, was set up in 2021 and runs a range of programmes for fathers. Its co-founder Jamsari Ahmad, an information technology professional, said a large part of its work involves helping fathers in jail bond with their children. For example, it runs a 12-session programme for incarcerated fathers to help them communicate with their children and repair their relationships, which are often strained as many of these fathers are not physically or emotionally there for them, Mr Jamsari said. The group also runs father-child bonding activities and "teh tarik with dads" sessions where fathers gather to share their experiences and support one another, among other things. Mr Jamsari said it is a secular group which works with fathers from all races and religions, although it has programmes that are designed specifically for Malay-Muslim dads. He said BapaHebat received $150,000 over three years from the fund, and the money played an instrumental role in allowing it to pilot new programmes and pay for operational costs. The group is currently run by volunteers, and it does not have any full-time staff yet, Mr Jamsari said. He added: "It is very difficult to get funding as we are an unknown entity, and donors are more interested to give to the youth, elderly and educational causes." Besides giving monetary support, The Majurity Trust has also helped the group such as by linking them to mentors and networking opportunities, and capability-building workshops, Mr Jamsari said. The Majurity Trust's Mr Tan said the latest partnership with Temasek Foundation will enable the fund to support more groups and help new grantees boost their capabilities, such as through a mentoring programme. For example, Starfish's partnerships and communications manager Vickland Kaamela Barvin said the fund enabled the group to hire its first two full-time staff and pay for other operational expenses. The group used to be run entirely by volunteers, who still include tutors. Two former colleagues at a private school, Ms Siti Yariyati and Ms Ritu Machanda, and research fellow Andrew Schauf started Project Starfish in 2015 as they realised that many school dropouts could not afford the fees at private schools that prepare them to take the national examinations as private candidates. Many of these dropouts were from the Normal stream. So Project Starfish - now Starfish Singapore - started a nine-month-long free tuition programme to prepare these young people to take the N levels. Ms Vickland said many of the young people they teach drop out of school at the age of 14 or 15 and, without an N-level certificate, many take on gig jobs, for example, as delivery riders, or join the food and beverage sector. She said: "There's a perception that absenteeism (from school) equates to naughtiness and laziness. To some extent, this is understandable, but such labelling affects their sense of self, and the reasons why they drop out are multifaceted. "They have family issues, mental health struggles and some get involved in criminal activities. But many of them have bigger dreams for themselves, and they want to pursue further education." Ms Syafizan attended classes at Starfish one day a week for English language, mathematics and science for about nine months, while she held a job at McDonald's. She eventually passed her N levels and later completed a Nitec course in electronics, computer networking and communications at the Institute of Technical Education. She is now pursuing a diploma in audio production at her "dream school", Lasalle College of the Arts. "Everyone at Starfish is so kind and caring, and they care about every single young person who comes through the programme," she said. "I would never have got to where I am now without Starfish."
Straits Times
06-05-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
Creative ways needed to fight complacency, wishful thinking, insularity before next pandemic: President Tharman
SINGAPORE – Barely five years after Covid-19 first hit the world, it is at risk of forgetting the lessons, and the greatest challenge now is complacency, wishful thinking and insularity, said President Tharman Shanmugaratnam. It has to counter that challenge creatively and avoid further polarisation, he said. 'We have to do so through arrangements that appeal to nations' sense of self-preservation, and which recognise the practical reality that we can only prevent and prepare for the next pandemic through a major step-up in internationally coordinated investments and actions.' Speaking at a high-level networking dinner hosted by Temasek Foundation on May 6, Mr Tharman said scientists have made clear that the next major pandemic is a matter of when, not if, and it could come in 10 years or next year. There is thus much work ahead. The world has to first reclaim lost ground and rebuild local healthcare systems as the Covid-19 pandemic had set them back by more than just the first few years of that event. It has to continue to invest at much higher levels in the global health ecosystem, especially in pandemic prevention and preparedness, as well as strengthen international and regional cooperation, Mr Tharman said. Held at the Pan Pacific Singapore hotel, the dinner coincides with the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2025, which is taking place from May 5 to 7. It brings together leaders from philanthropy, government and the private sector to explore opportunities for advancing health and well-being in Asia. Among the guest speakers is Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Congratulating him on reaching the agreement on the WHO's pandemic treaty on April 16, Mr Tharman said the pact lays the foundation for the world to address major gaps in the global health ecosystem, and particularly the huge inequities in access to vaccines and therapeutics that were seen during the Covid-19 pandemic. In research and development, much work needs to be done downstream to make vaccines and treatments affordable and accessible, he said. This includes developing vaccines that are needle-free to address the challenge of the need for skilled manpower to administer them, and which do not need to be kept below freezing point. Developing a globally distributed manufacturing ecosystem for vaccines and treatments is also very important, he added. Mr Tharman said the WHO has been working to seed and grow collaboration in these and other areas. 'Regional disease surveillance and control networks have also become crucial pillars of our collective defence,' he said. For instance, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention coordinates surveillance of 55 countries serving 1.3 billion people, while the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control strengthens preparedness in the European Union. In Singapore, the National Environment Agency's Environmental Health Institute, designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research of Arbovirus and their Associated Vectors, supports regional capacity and capability for the surveillance and control of arboviral diseases, which are spread by arthropods such as insects and mites. Asean, too, is stepping up in safeguarding regional health security. 'The gradual pullback in spending on international development and global health is now a new reality for multilateral institutions like the WHO, as well as for the other plurilateral and non-governmental bodies that comprise the whole health ecosystem,' said Mr Tharman. A resilient financing ecosystem for global health needs to be developed within these constraints, he said. 'We cannot wait for the most ideal multilateral architecture to be rebuilt, and we are not even sure what it would look like,' he said. 'We will therefore have to work with broad coalitions of the willing.' These are broad coalitions of governments, together with plurilateral bodies like the Coalition For Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, for instance, philanthropic organisations and leading businesses, working together with multilateral organisations like the WHO. World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (left) chatting with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Temasek Foundation networking dinner on May 6. ST PHOTO: GAVIN FOO Multilateral institutions can help mobilise these coalitions, and work jointly with them to scale up efforts to prevent and prepare for the next pandemic, Mr Tharman said. At the dinner, Dr Tedros said Singapore has come a long way since it gained independence in 1965 – the year he was born – and now enjoys one of the world's longest life expectancies, has one of the world's most advanced health systems, and is one of the world's most advanced economies. He said countries invest billions in protecting themselves from attacks by other countries or terrorist groups, but relatively little on protecting themselves from an attack from an invisible enemy. However, health security is economic security, and both must be balanced. A lot of the WHO's work goes unseen, including the unglamorous technical work of bringing global experts together to distil the latest scientific evidence into guidance, and helping countries to strengthen their health systems, Dr Tedros said. But the WHO cannot do it alone. It works closely with a huge range of partners, including many philanthropists, who are making a huge impact on global health. Temasek Foundation's executive director and CEO, Mr Ng Boon Heong, said that the foundation, as a non-state actor of the WHO, has pledged up to US$10 million (S$13 million) to co-curate programmes and projects to improve health outcomes in Asia in the areas of pandemic preparedness, maternal and child health, digital health, and science and innovation. The WHO works with non-state actors such as non-governmental organisations, philanthropic groups and academic institutions to advance global health. Joyce Teo is a senior health correspondent at The Straits Times, and the host of the ST Health Check podcast. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
