Aaron Yeoh’s heart beats for humanity. His empathy for the vulnerables is so deep he chose the path of compassion. He has a soft spot for People with Disabilities (PWDs) and the elderly in particular.

The former Singapore naval specialist grasps the pain or suffering of the vulnerable because he grew up amongst underprivileged friends, some of whom are visually disabled. The memories he made with them since childhood started a muted desire to help PWDs be recognised for their abilities rather than their disabilities, and be given a chance to be self-sustaining members of society. 

The desire to be proactive in underserved communities was rekindled after participating in an unexpected humanitarian trip to build toilets in a rural village in Cambodia. He was working as a financial advisor at AIA when a colleague asked if he was interested to volunteer for the humanitarian trip. The Singaporean gamely agreed.

“I had never been to Cambodia. I was intrigued. Don’t they have toilets there?” he asked and was told there was none in this particular rustic countryside. What greeted him was another level of poverty.  “It was the first time in my life I witnessed people living in that kind of poverty.” 

The two-week Cambodia immersion experience resulted in Aaron and his fellow volunteers completing 5-6 toilets, teaching English and Math, conducting a sports camp, and working with farmers on their farms.

“I was in my mid-20s. I had a good paying job. But the Cambodia trip sparked the idea that maybe one day I’d be doing more of this,” says Aaron, adding that his family’s poverty (due to the family business going bankrupt) when he was in late primary to early secondary school couldn’t compare to what he saw first-hand in Cambodia.   

“When it was time to think about my long-term career, exactly what I want to do, I realised I’m happy doing community work, interacting with people who live in poverty,” says Aaron, who earned a degree in Communication Engineering from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University. 

His long relationship with his vision impairment friends certainly weighed in as he pondered his next steps. With empathy reaching a new high, he decided to leave the corporate world and devote his time in service of the vulnerable through youth and community initiatives. 

“Persons with vision impairment have limited career choices. Most employers do not believe they have the talent, abilities and capabilities that can match able-bodied people,” says Aaron. Although he is a “normal person” he knows what it’s like to be disadvantaged. 

Since 2009 Aaron’s proactive work has been centred on underserved communities, volunteers, charities and private sectors to tackle social issues such as reducing prejudices and inequality. 

In particular, he manages three social organisations – Etch Empathy, Fortitude Culina and Cycling Without Age Singapore – to change mindsets and inspire others to do their share in breaking the boundaries.

The non-profit Etch Empathy (EE) serves ASEAN visually impaired communities in achieving their aspirations by working directly with communities, volunteers, charities and private sectors to reduce inequality and improve accessibility.  

What caught my attention is EE’s simulated workshop called Blind Date that aim to heighten empathy by engaging the heart, head and hands.

In Blind Date, you are marshaled into a café in total darkness by guides who are visually impaired. Without sight, you will learn to navigate using your sense of hearing, touch and smell to understand the extraordinary capabilities of the visually impaired. 

Social enterprise Fortitude Culina is an extension of what EE has been doing. In 2017 Aaron embarked on a project to train visually impaired persons to cook. The idea came to him during a communal meal with some visually impaired EE staff. 

After talking to culinary schools in Singapore, it became clear that no one takes in visually impaired for training. It compelled him to start blind (no pun intended) cooking project on his own, partnering with two visually impaired home cooks as trainers. With encouraging initial results, this led to the founding of Fortitude Culina in 2018, a social enterprise that trains and hires visually impaired as chefs in his café. 

With his plan to hire more kitchen crew from the marginalised community, Aaron is actively pitching to investors and partners while looking to rent a bigger kitchen to accommodate the growing number of trainees and staff.

He aspires to provide an Inclusive workspace where tasty nutritious meals are prepared for diners. Through training and gaining cooking skills onsite, he hopes to inspire talented and passionate visually impaired individuals to be micro-entrepreneurs on their own someday. 

Fortitude Culina has two very capable and skilled visually impaired chefs: Alex, specialising in Chinese cuisine; and Erna, specialising in Malay and Indonesian cuisines. Both are in-charge of training workshops and menu preparations. Serving tasty food is the focus of Fortitude Culina as Aaron is aware of the the cutthroat F&B industry. 

“My intent is to train them in acquiring both cooking and entrepreneurial skills so they could one day stand on their own,” he says. “It’s equally important that customers and potential funders believe in both the cause and the product. I want customers to come back because of the food, not because it was prepared by the visually impaired.” 

Around the time Aaron launched Fortitude Culina, he was also assisting in the setting up a charity, Cycling Without Age Singapore. It is a global movement to reduce social isolation for seniors by bringing them out on a trishaw ‘drive’ and facilitating inter-generational bonding with young volunteers. Its elderly-centric programmes aim to enhance the elderly’s emotional, social and physical wellbeing as they live out their best years. 

“It is human nature to turn a blind eye to issues that we do not think affect us, but we should extend more empathy towards our elders, as we may one day find ourselves in their shoes,” writes Aaron (todayonline), who currently serves as board chairman.

Looking at Aaron sitting across the table from me, I couldn’t help but notice the pride in his eyes and the sincerity in his voice. How could a seemingly ordinary man wake up with an extraordinary purpose every single day? 

When Aaron Yeoh was awarded the Singapore Silent Hero (Hearts of Humanity category) in 2020 there was no doubt the underserved communities were cheering for him. 

“The game has just started for the visually impaired. Those with disabilities can follow their own aspirations by leveraging on their talent,” he says thoughtfully.

Aaron has been on the path of compassion for years now. He could have chosen a more lucrative career.

“If I wanted to do something more profitable for personal gain I would have done that years ago,” he says with a wide smile. “This is my career. To me what matters is I enjoy what I’m doing. Everyday I wake up looking forward to going to work,” he says with a broad smile. 

Aaron’s heart beats for humanity and shows no sign of slowing down. There’s a lot more work to be done for the underserved communities in Singapore. 

His parting words to me: “If I were to give up quickly and so easily,  I'd be doing a disservice to society and myself.” 

Debbie | ws

P.S. As I was writing this story, I came across some information that the terms “differently abled” and “special needs” to describe people with disabilities are deemed inappropriate, condescending and demeaning. These terms only lead to stigmatisation, according to advocates. The proper term to use is People With Disabilities (PWD).

For more details to volunteer, donate, partner, visit: Etch Empathy | Fortitude Culina | Cycling Without Age | Contact: aaron@fortitudeculina.org