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KAREN TEE It takes a village not just to raise a child, but to change the world. Ben Cheong, founder of Magical Light Foundation, knows this all too well. Since 2013, the foundation has executed multiple projects around the region, including the building of 30 schools in Myanmar, setting up of libraries and computer rooms in village schools in Laos and Vietnam, and supporting educational programmes in migrant and refugee camps in Thailand.

Cheong readily acknowledges that the Magical Light Foundation could not have achieved this alone. It partners various local non-governmental organisations and initiatives in the respective countries, such as M Exchange in Bangladesh, which provides free medical care to villagers and children; India’s Children of Mother Earth, which provides homes for children in slums; and Smart Kids College in Mandalay, which runs educational programmes. Such on-the-ground partnerships allow the organisation to be better informed of the needs of the locals, so it can provide support that aligns with the community’s needs, explains Cheong.

Sometimes, even a small but wellplaced contribution can make all the difference. “There was a famine in one