A truism like “charity begins at home” will assume fresh layers of meaning if it expresses genuine emotion. For Kenneth Kam, charity began by his mother’s side when he entreated her for a few coins to be given to a beggar more than 40 years ago. The old man was standing outside a wet market. Times were a lot tougher then.
Kenneth distinctly remembers the pleasure he felt from seeing the happiness on the old man’s face as he clutched the coins.
To his surprise, that happiness stayed with him.
As a very young boy, Kenneth had discovered a secret. A secret which people who make a practice of giving learn eventually: to give is as much a joy to the giver as to the receiver. That single gesture enabled by his mother put that boy on the road to giving back.
Charity had indeed begun at “home”. With himself.
For Kenneth, a trader with introspection – a rare commodity in the knife’s edge world of instant consequence – charity also began at a HDB flat in Queenstown, the first home he ever owned. To that subsidised flat, he owes much of his early survival.
“In 2011, when I lost my job after years at a mid-management level, my money quickly dried up. Imagine. I was over 45 years old, I had dwindling savings and was overqualified for an entry-level position,” Kenneth says. “That HDB flat did something very crucial for me. It enabled me to survive,” he says. He rented it out for SGD2,500, a considerable sum of money in those days. It put food on the table and gave Kenneth the ease of mind to think seriously about what he was going to do for the rest of his life.
The rest, as they say, is history. But Kenneth never forgot the debt.
Kenneth is eager to pay his dues to the man who he says made a story like his possible. He feels deeply indebted to the late Lee Kuan Yew, whom he calls a “mindset leader”. It was a short step to wanting to give something back.
Once again, charity began at home: today, the Singapore Management University (SMU), the city-state’s premier college of management, runs a Kenneth Kam scholarship for undergraduate students from the Lee Kong Chian School of Business.
The award covers tuition and other study-related expenses for full-time Singaporean students. Established in 2016, it covers needy undergraduates with proven academic records and low family income.
Students are handpicked after a thorough vetting process by SMU. The deciding interview is conducted by Kenneth himself.
Adam* (age 24) who will graduate in 2017 having majored in Finance, is one of the recipients of the scholarship. With consistently stellar academic results, Adam is clearly gifted. His father is a chef and his mother an odd-job worker and waitress. The family had a setback when his father suffered a kidney failure when Adam was a little boy.
Adam plans to work in the financial services industry. His measure of success is to “always give my best to the tasks that I am given, while upholding integrity,” he says.
Another recipient, 25-year-old Ben, is also majoring in Finance at SMU. His parents work in the service and manufacturing industry, and he plans to embark on a career in investment banking upon graduation. Ben believes in working diligently to “provide a comfortable life for his loved ones”.
These are goals which Kenneth is happy to endorse. He hopes that these young scholars, too, will give back someday.
Because charity does begin at home.
*Names have been changed to protect the identities of individuals.
Authored by Kenneth Kam
Produced by Callio Media
Photo: Institute of Service Excellence (ISES), Singapore Management University