Robert Kee

Hi! I am a Singapore entrepreneur who has decided since 1995 to do my best to help the poor in developing countries. I studied electrical engineering at the University of Auckland , New Zealand as a Colombo Plan scholar and hold Master Degree from the National University of Singapore. In 2001 I started Operation Hope Foundation as a charity in Singapore doing work in poor countries. OHF has orphanages and training centres in Cambodia and Nepal and will be starting in Thailand as well. You can see our work on www.ohf.org.sg. I write my books based on my hands-on experience in running operations in these countries. Running operations is not just giving money to a local organisation to build a school or run an orphanage but to go down at times to micro managing the projects. It is hard work setting up procedures and ensuring the procedures are being followed. But this is the best way to get maximum benefit to the beneficiaries, the orphans and the poor. Too often , the poor are used as an excuse for fund raising and gets little from the donations raised. I like to look at beneft to cost ratios in our projects. To the desperate poor where life is GRINDING POVERTY, it is very sad to see donations being misused and abused.

I focussed very much on the backroom work of a charity. What enrichment programs do we have to prepare the children so that when they leave the orphanage they can sustain themselves. How do we prevent and detect fraud in a cash based economy where many people are trying to grab as much money as they can? When working with people earning US$1 a day, $100 is a pretty large sum of money. I believed if all donations are properly used, poverty can be significantly reduced throughout the world. I hope OHF can be a model for others to follow.