SINGAPORE — When Ms Lam Bao Yan flew to a refugee camp in eastern Germany in April 2022 to offer volunteer support to Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s invasion of their country, she could hardly have imagined what lay ahead.
Since then, Ms Lam, 40, along with her husband Rudy Taslim, also 40, have shuttled between Ukraine and Singapore around 10 times. The couple were also granted residential status in Ukraine after being invited to do so.
In that initial solo visit, Ms Lam lived at the refugee camp in Bad Blankenberg, Germany for a month, where she cooked for, counselled and cared for Ukrainian refugees.
“When the month was up, we were supposed to come back to Singapore, but I just felt like I could do more,” Ms Lam told TODAY.
“If these refugees were already so in need, I was wondering where is the need the most? I can only imagine it would be in Ukraine.”
This prompted her to enter Ukraine itself to continue serving its citizens and residents on the frontlines of the war. Her husband joined her in June 2022.
The couple are the founders of architecture firm Genesis Architects in Singapore, whose projects have included a resort in the Maldives, a residential development in Australia and various projects in Singapore.
The success of the business helps to fund their humanitarian work in Ukraine, as well as other good works around the world, including helping vulnerable children in the Amazon basin in Brazil.
In Ukraine, they have built more than 500 emergency houses for vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly, the young and the physically disabled.
The homes are in various parts of the country, including villages near the cities of Lyman, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, which are all in the country's east.
Other emergency homes have been built in villages such as Moschun, outside the capital Kyiv.
The projects also provide employment to Ukrainian locals, whom they hire to help build these houses.
The couple are co-founders of humanitarian organisation Love on Ukraine.
Besides building homes for vulnerable Ukrainians, they also bring in generators from the Netherlands, and provide free electricity and internet access to individuals and organisations such as hospitals and orphanages.
This allows those in need to charge their mobile and medical devices, communicate with family members outside of Ukraine, and obtain information online on getting food and medical aid, if needed.
To date, they have planted more than 80 “lighthouses” – the name they give to these areas of refuge – in several locations across Ukraine.
Through Love on Ukraine, the couple also extend financial and social support to pregnant women who have lost their husbands to the war, and individuals with special needs or disabilities who are unable to leave the country.
The couple, who shuttle between Singapore and Ukraine every 10 weeks or so, were awarded Ukrainian residential status by the government in 2022.
Mr Taslim told TODAY that the Ukraine government recognised their commitment to rebuilding the country, and the couple were invited to apply for residential status. They were granted residency, which allowed them to continue their works in Ukraine.
They will next return to Ukraine on June 13, where they will focus on setting up rehabilitation hospitals for wounded casualties, and train chaplains and community leaders involved in trauma counselling.
They will also convert more vehicles in order to make them suitable for transporting casualties, and expand existing orphanages’ capacities.
Before each trip back to Ukraine, the couple prepare themselves by spending time with their families.
They also wean themselves off coffee, sugar and chocolate, and cut down their daily intake by one meal to ensure they can keep functioning even without easy access to food.
The pair also obtain medication to regulate heart palpitations, which they experience at times while serving on the frontlines of the war zone.
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2024-06-08 00:00:00Z
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