Empowering Individuals, Touching Lives

The first Community Day Huang Zijuan volunteered for, the skies opened up.

"It was pouring," recalls Temasek's Director, Investment (Life Sciences), now a committee member of the staff-led volunteering initiative, T-Touch. Still, the carnival organised in June 2010 at Mindsville@Napiri, a facility for persons with learning disabilities, went off without a hitch. "Everyone just chipped in to do whatever it took… we were all quite spent by the end of the day," she laughs.

Community Day, held annually to mark the anniversary of Temasek's incorporation on June 25, 1974, is one of dozens of T-Touch volunteer programmes Zijuan has been involved in, and one of hundreds driven by Temasek staff around the world - individually, in groups, and company-wide.

"In every country that Temasek has an office, T-Touch is very much part of who we are," she says. "We want to make a difference to the communities we work in."

"Each one of us plays a small part. When everything comes together and you look at it as a whole, it's pretty impressive."

No one left behind

A Temasek scholar, Zijuan's Involvement in T-Touch began soon after she joined the company in 2006, and deepened through her 18-year career. "I just found myself at a meeting and never left," she laughs.

An associate with the financial services team, Zijuan moved to the life sciences team in 2011, and then to the Enterprise Development Group in 2013, where she focused on building businesses in the life sciences space, including healthcare platform Sheares Healthcare. In April this year, she rejoined the life sciences team, covering platform companies including ClavystBio, a life sciences investor and venture builder.

Through the years, she has witnessed the evolution of T-Touch, first as a volunteer, and now as a member of its eight-person committee which manages queries, finances and project approvals. "As Temasek has grown, our staff count has increased, so we're doing more, and on a larger scale," she says. Some things, however, have stayed the same. "I still see people go out of their way to contribute, regardless of how busy they may be."

One of the ways T-Touch organises itself is through 'House Adopts Home', where staff members are organised into seven house teams, each supporting a different charity home. "It's our way of engaging charities for the long term, to build deep bonds, and really know their needs," says Zijuan. Twenty-three years after it was formed in 2001, T-Touch continues to support its very first charity, Singapore Leprosy Relief Association Home (SILRA), now part of Surya Nursing Home.

T-Touch also supports what it calls the Thousand Flowers Projects, where Temasek staff are encouraged to support causes they are passionate about.

"If a colleague supports a cause and needs funding, we have funding they can tap. If they need publicity to recruit staff volunteers, we can help, and if they need partners, we can connect them. The idea is to catalyse the causes that our staff feel passionate about," she says.

Often, these are causes that typically fall through the cracks.

Zijuan recalls how the first Chairman of T-Touch, Lim Kim Hwee, collaborated with Yellow Ribbon to help ex-offenders find work. Project Naked Chef saw a group of inmates trained to work in the food and beverage industry, where demand for talent was high. "Once a week, a trainer went into the prison and taught a group of inmates culinary skills. Some eventually graduated with a certificate in basic culinary skills," she says. Later efforts trained inmates for jobs as divers to clean tanks at the River Safari, and provided bursaries for further studies. One ex-offender is now a practising lawyer.

"We try to push the envelope to create solutions to problems that we see," she says.

For Zijuan, the programme's enduring strength is that it is staff-driven, allowing them to champion causes they are truly passionate about, from brainstorming ideas to securing funding. Temasek fosters this spirit, matching staff donations one-for-one, for example, and providing employees with volunteer leave.

"When there is a culture where volunteerism is actively encouraged and supported, and there is firm belief in the value of giving back, we can really make a difference."

The ripple effect

To mark Temasek's 50th anniversary this year, staff volunteers joined forces with Temasek Trust, Temasek Foundation, Temasek Trust Asset Management and several Temasek portfolio companies to make Community Day truly special. Under the theme United for Good, they came together to support ​four beneficiary groups.

"Each year, we put in a lot of effort curating an engaging programme for our beneficiaries. This year being our 50th anniversary, we had different activities across multiple locations. The smiles on the faces of our beneficiaries were a powerful testament to our staff's dedication to the community," says Zijuan.

This dedication is at the very core of T-Touch's philosophy.

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