Paying It forward

Rebecca Eu, scion of the Eu Yan Sang brand, is on a mission to help underprivileged women and children.

- Adora Wong

Let’s get it out of the way: Rebecca Eu belongs to the family who owns traditional Chinese medicine company Eu Yan Sang, which operates multiple clinics and retail outlets across the region. And yes, Eu Tong Sen Street was named after her great-grandfather.

To Rebecca, her privileged position is exactly why she has dedicated herself to her work. The 27-year-old knows that she is in a position to give more freely, and is thus very involved in efforts to help the underprivileged. And while she has made donations, it’s not just all cheques. She spent a few years on the ground in Manila, supporting survivors of sex trafficking. And in 2015, at the age of 21, Rebecca founded social enterprise Love, Mei to help provincial artisans in the Philippines. She relaunched it as Mei's Own in 2019 – a play on the word maison – to empower her beneficiaries: They are no longer victims of sex trafficking, but artisans and creators.

DISCOVERING HER CAUSE

Rebecca readily admits that she didn’t always know she’d be this passionate about making a positive social impact.

“I was attending an International Relations class when I thought to myself, ‘I have no idea what’s going on in Southeast Asia.’ I’d like to identify as someone cultured, but how can I say that about myself if I don’t know what’s happening in the world? I decided to go to the Philippines to teach for a summer,” she says. But she was so distressed by the plight of the girls she met that she decided to continue providing support.