Leaena Tambyah

Leaena Chelliah was born on 28 June 1937 to the Venerable Dr Devasahayam David Chelliah and his wife Rosalind.[2][3] She and her family moved from Penang to Singapore in 1940, when her father was appointed as 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]

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]

She first met Dr John Anantharajah Tambyah (1938–2011) in 1953 while she was attending Raffles Girls' School and he was attending Raffles Institution. They married in 1964, and had a son, Professor Paul Tambyah, and a daughter, Malini Tambyah.[7]