Wealth Of Compassion

Banker Pearlyn Phau leads the charge in the Onefor10 initiative, which enables and encourages the affluent to give in impactful and sustainable ways

FOR A TEAM building event one year, Pearlyn Phau and her colleagues went to Chiang Mai — not to live it up at a luxury resort, but to drive for hours to orphanages near the Myanmarese border as part of their corporate social responsibility efforts. The group raised funds to build gutters and install water filters for migrant camps; brought with them some 30 boxes of clothes and supplies; visited facilities for stateless and displaced youths that depended entirely on private donations for their operating costs; and constructed a library for an orphanage and stocked it with books.

That trip opened Phau’s eyes to the plight of children who live from day to day, without harbouring any expectations of a bright future. “They don’t even own the clothes on their backs. The phrase, ‘The early bird catches the worm’, is literally played out each morning, as the child who wakes up the earliest gets to grab the T-shirt and shorts hanging outside the dorm to wear for the day,” recounts the DBS Bank Managing Director and Deputy Group Head of Consumer Banking & Wealth Management. “That experience led me to reflect on the never-ending supply of goodies our children enjoy today.”