(Photo: Benjamin Pwee address the guests of the foundation’s 1st Anniversary dinner)
Pwee Foundation celebrated its one year old anniversary on Tuesday with a dinner event with all its supporters, collaborators and its volunteers. In midst of its celebration, the foundation rounded up an eventful year with short presentations of the various projects involving social enterprises and charitable institute.
Founded by a team of passionate professionals; Mr Benjamin Pwee, Mr Micheal Low, Mr David Lee and Mr Jonathan Yang are the founders and currently the board of directors of the foundation. The foundation’s belief is that organizations can be helped to self sustain rather than simply to depend on grants given to them. By working with government bodies which look after the targeted group of beneficiaries and companies which has corporate social responsibility (CSR), the foundation has made headway in turning that belief into a successful working model.
One of the projects which the foundation embarked on during the year is W.R.A.P (Work readiness attachment program). This is a program with the Boys Town Home that helps boys from the home to be trained in employment skills and lifeskills. Said to be a much success by the coordinator from the home as it created interest within the boys to look forward towards working and to be able to anticipate what is in store for them in the working life. (Report on the project)
The work which the foundation is involved in is not limited to local charitable projects. Pwee foundation had helped ventures such as Terra-tech (a company in in India that is coming up with a cheap but effective model of taxi booking and monitoring) to source for funding; helped to source funding and streamline the operations of I-initium, a local social enterprise for youths at risk and also raised capital for Sun-eee Pte Ltd, a Cambodian renewable energy company that addresses both the social problem of low penetration of electricity in rural areas and the environmental problem of a heavy reliance on diesel fuel. The other projects are; Arabuko-Sokoke Schools and Ecotourism Scheme (ASSETS) in Kenya and Centre for Community Transformation in Philippines.
Other projects which Pwee foundation has embarked on since last year :
- Monthly in house talks with speakers such as Laurence Lien, Chenong Yip Seng, John Bittleston and Tan Siok Sun
- Participated in NVPC’s Funders Roundable Series
- Provided organisational consulting for NVPC’s
- Corporate Giving Council’s strategic direction
- Introduced corporate partners to Community Foundation Singapore
- Raised funding for Silverline mobile phone app
- Supported Newton Circus’ “Active Ageing” Hackathon
- Partnered Silver Spring for re-employment of seniors
- Supported Singapore Hospice Council’s financial needs
- Assisted in reviewing & incubating applicants for NVPC’s Jump Start Grant and New Initiative Grant
Apart from rounding up the past projects, Mr Pwee also announced the upcoming initiatives that the foundation will be embarking on this coming year. The foundation will be embarking on a year long project with local Malay-muslim NGO, Pertapis on assistance in its various programmes such as children home and the social enterprises under the NGO’s wing. There will also be other programmes involving a global partnership with JA-HP Social Innovation Relay and a year partnership with Hemispheres Foundation. The foundation is also being invited to join Board of BoP Hub which is founded by Jack Sim, founder of the Restroom Association of Singapore and World Toilet Organization.
In recognition of the foundation’s work in Cambodia, Mr Pwee is being invited as a speaker in the Social Innovation Leadership Awards that will be held this 17th February at Taj Lands End, Mumbai.
The foundation hopes that it can continue its work with the social enterprises in Singapore as well as any other organization that would require their assistance. Pwee foundation expressed its interest to collaborate with more interested corporations that would like to engage in CSR for their company on the projects that the foundation handles or kick-start in the future.
By Terry Xu
[slider_pro id=”4″]
