Special Event: Let’s Talk About

Jonathan is a lawyer by profession. He co-founded ReadAblein 2014 after serving with his church in food distribution work to ensure that children have solid fundamentals for learning. Today, ReadAbleis fully volunteer-run and runs weekly literacy and numeracy classes in JalanKukoh. Its vision is to beat poverty, one word at a time.

Hazirah is currently trying to ensure that her youngest sister makes edible cinnamon rolls, and remembers to wipe off the excess flour on the kitchen counter. As an aspiring social studies and history teacher, she has a small interest in learning about everything. She is constantly trying to find new ways to introduce difficult topics to her students in a way that both interests them, and encourages them to be empathetic about the society they are growing up in. Through The Birthday Collective, she hopes to introduce people to different perspectives, and encourages them to be open to new ideas.

Hazeem is currently a student at Yale-NUS College, majoring in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He founded The Signpost Project to engage and learn the unheard stories of tissue paper sellers and cardboard collectors as part of the Vulnerable-in-Community network. He has also co-founded another non-profit called ALittleChange, which focuses on the parent-child communication gap within low-income families. Both of his initiatives have received substantial media attention on platforms such as Channel News Asia, Mothership.sg and the National Gallery. Beyond local recognition, he has earned accolades from the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry and was invited to the inaugural Paris Peace Forum. Aside from his initiatives, Hazeem actively volunteers with organisations that support minorities and youth communities.

Renita is presently a Group Legal Counsel at Temasek’s infrastructure companies (Capitaland), and is also pursuing a double Masters in Law and Public Policy. She remains passionate for elderly, low-income communities, women, environmental and foreign worker causes. As a corporate lawyer, she heads the Younger Lawyers Chapter of the Singapore Corporate Counsel Association, and was named one of the top lawyers under 40 in 2018 by the Singapore Business Times. Outside of work, Renita is a committee member with the Young Women’s Leadership Connection, as well as Family Support Services group of the Eurasian Association. She has also co-founded two other initiatives, being The Kindness Initiative SG” to promote kind acts across society, as well as the “Chatty Caterpillar” to promote mental health and resilience as well.