Elischa Montague-Drake spent a gruelling week in Myanmar in 2013, braving this and that to help repair the smiles of more than 100 Burmese children. 

My son Orlando was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and we were fortunate enough to have him treated by Prof. Dr Vincent Yeow, a world-leading paediatric plastic and reconstructive surgeon who volunteers with Operation Smile Singapore to deliver safe surgeries on cleft lip, cleft palate, burns, tumors and other facial deformities in third world countries.

Following my son’s treatment, I was happy to accept the invitation from Operation Smile on the nursing team to join their mission to Myanmar and soon found myself on a flight with 32 other volunteers bound for Yangon, Burma.

The team arrived late on Saturday, and by early Sunday morning, the screening process for the surgeries began at the Old Blood Bank building opposite the Yangon General Hospital.

Hundreds of families were at the gate, all scrambling to get inside for a chance to be seen and a hope to have their child operated on. For some, it had taken several days to get from their village to Yangon, some travelling by donkey or foot, then up to 18 hours by bus on bumpy roads.

The children looked exhausted, the heat was scorching, and yet their parents sat patiently soothing their infants and children with straw fans.

The scene was confronting. They were worst cleft cases I had ever seen and by midday, I had seen 90 patients. It all became a blur, almost robotic to take their vital signs and send them on to the surgeon.

Some children were so malnourished that it was hard to guess their ago: I held one baby and thought she was a new-born; at 3.5kg she was one year old.

I could tell how poor the children were by their lack of cleanliness and dirty clothes – I don’t know the last time they bathed, yet they still seemed like the happiest people I had ever meet.

The team greeted each child and family member with smiles and we were fortunate enough to have translators to bridge the communication gap. By Sunday evening, the weary team had screened hundreds of children, shared laughter and stories from our home countries and accepted 136 children for surgery.

For some, it was heart-breaking to tell the mummies that their child did not qualify for surgery, almost like delivering a death sentence. Thankfully, out of 136 children, only 10 did not qualify.

The case that broke my heart was an 18month old boy with a cleft lip and palate brought in by a local nurse who found him in a rubbish dump.

We fed him some porridge – he was starving and he screamed for hours on end. The surgeons agreed to operate on him but it broke my heart to know that he still had no one to love him, he was still abandoned. It was hard to say goodbye to him that night as the Burmese nurses took him back to his new home at the hospital.

The following day was the start of the week of surgery. We walked straight past the general hospital and into a field with a slum building, the slum being the Cleft and Craniofacial Centre, Yangon.

Feral dogs, no air conditioning, putrid stenches, no sinks in the corridors for nurses to wash their hands and archaic old metal beds with no linen greeted us. Medical equipment was non-existent, but donated medical supplies had arrived from Singapore and the USA, including antibiotic ampoules, analgesia, liquid hand gel, gloves, intravenous drips and fluids and wound care.

Theatre was in an area out the back, only apparent by a wobbling metal fence that read “operating theatre” from outside.

Surgeries had commenced, parents were scared, and kids were screaming. As a woman broke down as she gave her baby to the surgeon, I held her and pointed to photos of Orlando on my phone and kept repeating over and over “it’s going to be ok”.

I don’t know if she understood, but the bond between mothers sharing the same pain is strong. As I wiped a tear from her face and held her close, I knew she understood I had gone through the same ordeal.

Hours passed, and as she saw her son for the first time after surgery the joy on this mothers face was indescribable. Her son now looked like a normal little boy.

I could then truly understand how rewarding the missions were, all the hard work paid off just to get a glimpse of the parents’ happiness to see their child for the first time after surgery. One by one, the surgeries continued well into the night – although the team was getting tired, no one complained.

The days and nights continued, and by day three, the team were exhausted – some days had already been as long as 17 hours. Each night, the team caught the bus back to the hotel sharing stories from the day and the realisation kicked in that we needed to reserve all our energy for the days that awaited.

Again, the days became robotic, listening to children crying and doing what we could do.

At one stage. I had 14 patients to care for in the same room. Babies started to share beds, parents slept on the floor, and children went to the toilet in plastic bags on the floor.

Each day was exhausting and I still felt dumbfounded on the lack of medical facilities. However, the parents were eternally grateful for all that the team did and I admired their unconditional love and care that they had for their children, patiently sitting or laying beside them in not so desirable conditions.

On the last day of the mission, the abandoned infant had his surgery and I was overwhelmed by happiness when I saw the amazing job that the surgeons had done on him.

We each took turns to nurse him post operatively and even parents of other children sat by his bed soothing him with their paper straw fans and humming. Operation Smile had successfully operated on 126 children. Families began their journeys back to their villages with new smiles and happiness.

This article was originally published in August 2013.

Roseanne Woodmansee is from Sydney and accompanied her husband to Singapore in 2005 when he was recruited by Krafts Foods.

Before she moved here she was a licensed real estate agent in New South Wales and worked for institutional property investors and property management companies.

She had been working for four and half years as the community liaison officer at the Australian High Commission. In 2011, when she left, she asked three friends how she should describe herself when applying for a new job.

“Using different words all three friends told me immediately that she should set up my own business to help people to get settled in Singapore.

“My strength is building relationships with people of a wide variety of professional and cultural backgrounds. It has been jokingly remarked that no matter what activity you are looking to do in Singapore that ‘Rosanne has a friend who will have already had a good time doing it’.”

“The process to set up a company in Singapore is very simple. We are permanent residents so after first asking advice of an accountant, I chose my company name, checked on line that it was available, then I registered my company online too. The set up was just a few hours work.”

She said one challenge was marketing, which took more time per month than she anticipated, and working by herself.

“In the first five months the biggest challenge was not having any co-workers to provide peer support. I now counterbalance this downside of being self-employed by allocating time each month to various volunteer roles always as part of a team.”

She wouldn’t have set up a business like Five Foot Way Connections in Sydney – “I would most likely have continued my career in the corporate world.”

She has some advice for people looking to set up their own companies here:

“If you already have a business elsewhere that you are considering duplicating, do your research on all the practicalities of operating it here, including statutory requirements.

“If you are inspired to start your own business but do not know what form it should take, ask your friends. They know your strengths and will encourage you when you need it.”

This article was originally published in June 2013.

Pregnancy was the push Renee Lodens needed to turn her love of travel and shopping into a business.

Renee moved to Singapore in October 2010 to be with her then boyfriend, who quickly she married. At the time she was doing market research for a market research intelligence firm, and worked there for more than a year working mainly with big multi-nationals and local organisations.

“I went onto maternity leave, and during my maternal leave I reflected on my career – I was torn between being a mum and having a career so I started to explore starting my own business.

“I’ve always had a passion for travel and we did some pretty extensive travel since I’ve been here – probably nine countries in 2011 – and these travels I would always want to go shopping and I would look for local gems and local stores and I found resources for where to go shopping was quite limiting and challenging. The best way was walking the streets.”

When people asked her where to go shopping in Singapore, she realised she wasn’t the only one who had trouble finding good travel information.

“People would come up to me and say ‘where do I go shopping’ – they just assumed Orchard Road was the place to go. I started farming out tips then I thought I should try and make some money out of it.”

That’s when Travelshopa was born – her online guide to shopping in Singapore and further afield. She toyed with the idea of having a print magazine or online and decided online was the way to go.

“It just started to grow from there.

Having support from her husband meant a lot.

“My husband backed it. And that’s important to me in the decision I was making – I didn’t have the pressure to go back to work.

“When you’re raising a family, a career can be disruptive anyway if it doesn’t work I still have a career to fall back on. But it will work!”

So how does it feel to have your own company?

“Amazing. It’s made me fall in love with Singapore even more. With travel, a baby and corporate job, there wasn’t time to know the city but now I’ve got to know a really local side of Singapore – it’s changed my view for the better.”

Having her own business has also let her see her 15-month-old daughter Eva Rose more.

“It’s 24/7 but the benefit is I’m at home so I still get to be a part of her everyday [activities] but I also get to work when I have to work. I do take time out every week just her and me.”

 This article was originally published in June 2013.

Moving to Singapore can be just the kick some people need to cast off the shackles of a corporate job and pursue their passions. In fact, being new to a country and being in Singapore’s business-friendly environment can inspire people to try out that idea they have either just come up with or have been harbouring for years. Many women who come to Singapore do just that.

 AustCham executive director Annette Tilbrook said there is a consistent trend of women who have moved here with their partner or families, changed their career path and set themselves up as business owner.

“Some women who want to work in Singapore may find that the career they had in Australia is no longer open to them in Singapore due to different qualification requirements or that the pay rate no longer makes it as attractive. “With Singapore offering an easy environment to establish a business, these women often see a unique business opportunity and can transfer their skills from past careers to create a very successful business venture.”

These days, there are much more women these days being moved over to Singapore in high-level executive positions, she said.

“It is also becoming much more common for families to move to Singapore because of the women’s job and I believe this pattern will continue. As the number of women entering senior positions in Australia increases many of these will seek to add Asian business experience to their resume.”

One such entrepreneur who has turned a dream into reality is Australian Gabrielle Cummins.

When she moved to Singapore from Melbourne with her husband Brandon and children Zac, Mathilde and Brigitte (now aged 13, 11 and eight) almost five years ago, she was a full-time mum and had various marketing positions within the arts industry for most of her career, but had never been in charge herself.

“I love all things arts – the process, the result and the sharing of creative thought – vital for cultural introspection, expression and growth. Promoting artists and their unique and eclectic views of reality has long been a passion of mine.”

When she’d decided to relocate, she was interested in exposing Singapore and Asia to Australian artistic culture and to see what further regional possibilities could arise.

“It was only when we moved into our house at 303 Tanglin Road that things started shaping up. Whilst the venue is our home, the space and opportunity here for arts events is unique, and proved irresistible. So with my Australian industry contacts, like Sonja Chalmers of Eastern Desert Art, I began.

“In many ways, I could not have asked for a better start to a business. Having thrown myself into interacting with the various communities in Singapore only a few months after I relocated here as an expat ‘trailer’ and not having worked full time for several years, there was some trepidation. However, I was greeted with nothing short of all out enthusiasm, well wishes and practical supporting both professional and personal spheres.”

Being her own boss gives her the flexibility to incorporate other large aspects of her life – most importantly, her family.

She has some advice for budding entrepreneurs:

“If you are new to Singapore and looking to start a small business, a good place to begin would be with a visit to Amanda at Tall Trees Consulting and Accounting who will quickly put you on the straight and narrow regarding business structure options and methodology within Singapore. The next would be to become a member of AustCham where you can be assisted in so many ways – exactly how depends on the nature of your business.”

This article was originally published in June 2013.

Many of today’s trailing spouses come armed with talents, qualifications and experiences that are highly sought after by many volunteer organisations here in Singapore.

Whether they’re looking for work in their chosen field, opting for a change of vocation or simply choosing to have a career break, opportunities abound for these talented individuals to use these skills to help others in need.

While ANZA Action continues to actively support our five nominated charities, there are other places around Singapore that can also use a volunteer’s helping hand. 

We are all familiar with The Red Cross and its commitment to victims of natural disasters and humanitarian crisis relief. Locally, The Red Cross works tirelessly to improve the lives of those most vulnerable within the community and to this end, runs Singapore’s only home for the severely disabled.

The home cares for about 100 residents who have a number of disabilities such as Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Spastic Quadriplegia. A team of nurses and physiotherapists, supported by volunteers, engage each of the residents in physical, creative and social activities, to keep their bodies and minds engaged.

In 2013, I visited the home to meet the Red Cross Coordinator and to see for myself what the home offers to its residents. Stopping by each of the areas, I could see how much some of the residents enjoy seeing different people come through to the door.

One such gentleman was keen to know what my birth date was – he could tell me straight away that it was a Tuesday in 2013 – I had no idea but he was quite correct, and very pleased that he had gotten yet another day correct.

Others were not quite as outgoing, because strangers upset their equilibrium, but I was told that even the most reserved will come out of their shells given care, compassion and time. And this is where volunteers are so beneficial to the residents. A regular visitor to read, to chat or play games with the residents is a priceless gift of friendship for the residents of The Red Cross Home for the Disabled.

It’s not just about giving your time. The Red Cross also offers another service which at some time during our lives we may need to make use of – blood donation. I have a great fear of needles which is why I don’t give blood. But it turns out I have a blood type that is not rare but neither is it common. I realised I should not be relying others to donate blood on my behalf, just because I hate needles. It’s a bit of community service that just might save a life so get in touch with the Red Cross and see what you can do.

If you would like to know more about the opportunities for volunteering at the Red Cross Home for the Disabled, please email anzaaction@anza.org.sg

This article was originally published in April 2013 and updated for The ANZA Guide to Singapore.