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Leaena Tambyah

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Leaena Tambyah
PBM BBM
Born
Leaena Chelliah

(1937-06-28)28 June 1937
Penang, Straits Settlements
Died8 September 2023(2023-09-08) (aged 86)
Singapore
NationalitySingaporean
EducationB.S.
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
OccupationSocial worker
Known forDisability rights and special education advocacy
Spouse
John Anantharajah Tambyah
​
​
(m. 1964; died 2011)​
ChildrenPaul Anantharajah Tambyah (son)
Malini Tambyah Rajendran (daughter)
Parents

Leaena Tambyah PBM BBM, (born Leaena Chelliah; 28 June 1937 – 8 September 2023), was a Singaporean special education advocate who founded the country's first school for children with multiple disabilities.[1] The school was originally called the Handicapped Children's Playgroup, but went on to become the AWWA School. Tambyah also founded a programme called TEACH ME (Therapy and Educational Assistance for Children in Mainstream Education) to try to bring disabled children into mainstream schools, and to provide mobile therapy services to children whose families could not afford to bring them to a hospital.

Early life and education

Leaena Chelliah was born in Penang, Malaya on 28 June 1937 to The Venerable Reverend Dr. Devasahayam David Chelliah and his wife Rosalind. She was the youngest of the six children.[2][3] She and her family moved from Penang to Singapore in 1940, when her father was appointed headmaster of Saint Andrew's School.[4] She attended Raffles Girls' School, then Raffles Institution, before moving to England to earn her bachelor's degree in social science at the University of Birmingham.[5][1] She returned to Singapore in 1960, and the next year began working as an assistant director at the Ministry of Social Affairs.[5][1]

Special education advocacy

Tambyah left her job at the Ministry of Social Affairs when she became pregnant with the first of her children.[5] She then worked part-time as a social worker and volunteered extensively. During this time she began volunteering at the Asian Women's Welfare Association (AWWA), where she helped run a family service centre.[4]

In 1979, she organized the Handicapped Children's Playgroup, a weekly playgroup at the Church of St. Ignatius for a small number of children with multiple disabilities, who at the time were not accepted to mainstream or special needs schools.[6] This was the first school for multiply-disabled children in Singapore.[4][5] She chaired the playgroup from 1979 until 1985. In 1986, the playgroup won a United Nations Community Excellence Award. The playgroup has since become the AWWA School.[4][5][1]

Tambyah organized a project called TEACH ME (Therapy and Educational Assistance for Children in Mainstream Education) in 1991. This project brought some children from special needs schools into mainstream schools. It also included a mobile therapy clinic to treat physically disabled children whose parents could not afford to bring them to hospitals for therapy.[6] In 1994, the Family Resource and Training Centre gave TEACH ME the Innovative Programme Award.[1]

In 1984, Tambyah was awarded the Public Service Medal for her work. In 1991, she earned a special volunteer award from the Community Chest of Singapore. In 1994, she received the Public Service Star,[1] and was named Her World Woman of the Year for her work to help children with special needs.[5] In 2011, she was given the Special Recognition Award at the President's Volunteerism & Philanthropy Awards.[1]

Personal life

While attending the Raffles Girls' School, in 1953, she met Dr. John Anantharajah Tambyah (1938–2011), who had attended the Raffles Institution. They married in 1964, and had a son, Professor Paul Anantharajah Tambyah, and a daughter, Malini Tambyah.[7]

Death

Tambyah was diagnosed with a blood disorder in March 2023. She later suffered a stroke in September 2023 and her two children Paul and Malini put her into palliative care. She died a week later, on 8 September 2023, at the age of 86.[8]

Tambyah was cremated at the Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium Complex and her ashes was scattered off the coast, at Changi, where she and her late husband once dated as teenagers.

Notable works

  • Three Special Friends with Kathleen Chia - 2000
  • D D Chelliah: Man of Faith, Master Teacher - 2007

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Yeoh, Lai Lin (12 November 2012). "Helping children with nowhere to go Leaena Tambyah (born 1937 - )". Singapore Memory. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  2. ^ "Dr D D Chelliah's outstanding contributions to education …". www.nas.gov.sg. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  3. ^ "Rosalind Chelliah". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d "Leaena Tambyah". Singapore Women's Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Leaena Tambyah". Her World Woman of the Year. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  6. ^ a b Song, Jiyoung, ed. (2017). A History of Human Rights Society in Singapore, 1965-2015. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9781315527406. OCLC 987075969.
  7. ^ "Policies, politics and paranoia: Singapore Democratic Party chairman Paul Tambyah goes On the Record". Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  8. ^ Ang, Shermaine (9 September 2023). "Leaena Tambyah, the 'lioness' of the Asian Women's Welfare Association, dies at 86". The Straits Times. ISSN 0585-3923. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
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