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Our success is rooted in our communities. As individuals and as an institution, we benefited from the contributions of those before us. They were the pioneers who opened doors of learning and carved out new paths of possibilities. In turn, we seek to enrich the community by widening portals of knowledge and extending pathways of opportunities, be it the 1997 endowment to sponsor exchange programmes, the funding of scholarship and research endowments in 2001, or the time, money and effort for the recovery and reconstruction programmes post the 2004 tsunami. At the heart of the institution is our commitment to make a difference, whether as individual donors or volunteers, or as a team patiently exploring ways to develop a sustainable framework to support the community. Temasek Cares! is a volunteer group initiated by our staff. It has adopted the Singapore Leprosy Association and the Spastic Children’s Association of Singapore. Our volunteers work directly with these charities to support their needy charges. Other ad hoc efforts include a charity auction to support the young children of two police coast guards who died in the line of duty, and structuring the proceeds into annuities to meet their education and living expenses from childhood to adulthood. As an institution, we began planning for a more sustainable framework for community sponsorship in 2003, in the uncertain depths of the SARS epidemic. We broke new ground by earmarking a share of our positive Wealth Added to fund community initiatives, similar to how we have set aside a share to fund our staff bonuses and performance incentives. It took several more years of meticulous search and the accumulation of funds in parallel, before we launched two new non-profit philanthropic organisations in May 2007 – the Temasek Trust to manage donated funds; and the Temasek Foundation to focus on identifying or creating community support and development programmes for Asia. These organisations complement the other more Singapore-centric pro bono entities that we continue to support. We also remain committed as a member of the global citizenry to help shape a shared future of hope and opportunities for our fellowmen. As the Chinese adage goes: 饮水思源 (yin shui si yuan) – remember the source when you drink the water. |  |
