Children of Cambodia Awarded Jetstar’s Flying Start Grant

Children of Cambodia, a charity organisation based in Singapore that provides valuable healthcare training programmes to disadvantaged areas in Cambodia, has been awarded Jetstar’s second Flying Start grant.

Led by Jonathan Ng, the team will receive a grant of $10,000 cash and $10,000 flights, which will be spent on cross border training for healthcare professionals in Singapore and Cambodia, and a scholarship programme for youth to participate in the organisation’s programmes.

“The team at Jetstar Asia are delighted to support this organisation,” said Jetstar Asia and Valuair CEO, Barathan Pasupathi. “What impressed us most about Children of Cambodia was their continued commitment to improve the quality of healthcare in the country. Their work has also inspired and motivated other young healthcare providers to give their time and make a positive impact on the community.”

Over the last decade, the group of young adults from Children of Cambodia has created impactful programmes at Angkor Hospital for Children. Driven by a common vision to make a difference, their achievements include setting up an open heart surgery programme, opening an intensive care ward for newborns in partnership with National University Healthcare System and creating a burns programme with Singapore General Hospital.

With the Flying Start grant, Jonathan and team will be able provide more healthcare training, while recruiting more of Singapore’s youth to get involved.

“We are extremely honoured and proud to achieve the Jetstar Flying Start Grant. The grant will be invaluable as we strive to reach our goal of providing free, quality, sustainable healthcare for children in Cambodia,” said Jonathan Ng. “Running the organisation entirely on our school allowance has proven to be a limiting factor. The grant will remove this barrier and really allow us to achieve the programme’s objectives.”

As well as providing invaluable healthcare training to the hospital, Jonathan stresses the importance of involving the Singapore community in Children of Cambodia’s efforts.

“We constantly seek to recruit similarly driven young individuals to provide mentorship and opportunities to lead in the areas of charity and healthcare. The grant will help us create a programme where youth who would like to participate in Overseas Community Projects such as ours will be given a partial grant to remove financial barriers,” he said.

Flying Start judge and social enterprise champion Emily Teng reinforces the panel’s passion for the cause.

“Over the last nine years, Jonathan and the team have shown what a huge impact a young group of friends can have on drastically changing the quality of healthcare in an underprivileged community. Their work has touched more than a million children to date, and will continue to benefit future generations in Cambodia,” said Ms. Teng.

Together with social entrepreneur Ms Elim Chew and Jetstar Asia pilot Mr Jeffrey Pang, all four judges voted unanimously to award the second Jetstar Flying Start grant in Singapore to Children of Cambodia.