
Giving back
While focusing on growing their business, Terence says, their overarching goal was to do more for the community and go beyond one-off financial donations or spur-of-the-moment charity work. “We wanted to put real thought behind it,” he says. Guided by their shared values, interests and passion to keep children off the streets and to provide opportunities to the underprivileged, Terence and Nelson give out grants to non-profit sports organisations such as the Amateur Muay Thai Association Singapore. In fact, the sponsorship helped the national team score its first medal win (bronze in the Under-23 category) in the World Muaythai Championships in Bangkok in July 2019, where Singapore competed against 127 countries. “It is a rather under funded sport, to be honest, but following the programme, they’ve won medals and championships and, in this way, the [fighters] go onto become role models to others, or to become trainers,” Nelson says.
The group also stepped in as St Michael’s Soccer Association’s inaugural title sponsor in2019. “The key thing is, how can we do something different that’s not just giving money? How can we bring about change?” says Nelson. “Terence and I love sports, which is why we gave a lot of sports scholarships and sponsorship for sports programmes, for example, the Muay Thai programme— we’re very proud of it. We are helping keep kids off the streets, to channel their energies into sports and, most importantly, our scholarships are contingent on their going back to school. In addition, sports teaches you core values— determination, grit, teamwork, discipline. That’s why when people ask us, why is it always sports scholarships, why do you do things differently, where the key parameters are not academic results?” Nelson believes academic results alone could, in fact, be a stumbling block. “It could not be a plus, and may in fact be a deterrent. People say we are mavericks, that we shoot from the hip, but that’s the world we live in today. With technology and [artificial intelligence], what we learn today may not be relevant for the jobs of tomorrow.”
That is not to say they do not appreciate the value of a good education. The key is never to make it the sole determining factor to one’s eventual success and their life path. In fact, the Loh cousins are alumni of the Girton College (University of Cambridge), and they also give out undergraduate scholarships to Singaporeans students to attend Cambridge everyyear. “We want to give it to those who’ve never even dreamt about being able to go to Cambridge,” says Nelson. Terence agrees that education is key to charting one’s own path. “We want to give back to education because it’s crucial that people are able to use education to think for themselves,to help them find out who they are,” he says.“And sports is [also] an excellent way to overcome your challenges, physical or mental, to learn how to work as a team and be able to lead and be led.”
What they hope to do next is to take their efforts for social good further through healthcare screenings, which is something they do in other markets such as Taiwan and South Korea. “[We want to] advance basic healthcare for more people. We have the resources and the platform, so the question is where and how do we do [it].” On Dec 14, Novena Lifecare Group will hold a fundraiser called the Education Benefit Gala Dinner to support education and training for marginalised women and children from disadvantaged families.
The four beneficiaries are Dreams Institute(South Central Community Family ServiceCenter), which empowers young people from low-income households to break out of poverty by providing bond-free scholarships as well as residential accommodation; Singapore Council of Women’s Organisations Service Fund to aid marginalised women through counselling, financial assistance and legal advice; Daughters Of Tomorrow, which supports training and workforce-related agencies to help underprivileged women; and Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapura, which provides holistic support for Muslim women and their families with training programmes and consultancy services. With the aim of raising $5 million for these charities, the group has invited former US president Barack Obama to attend the gala dinner and participate in a 60-minute moderated conversation.
The decision to invite Obama was not driven only by the fact that he would be a highlight of the event, but also that he would be able to inspire those present. “We did not want this to be like every other gala. We have chosen the charities whose founders and patrons share our values and are invested in the cause, and they are equally involved,” says Terence.
So, how does one “top” inviting Obama to a gala? Who is next? “Who knows, maybe we’ll invite David Beckham next year; the sky’s the limit,” he says, laughing.
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