Tanoto Foundation Board of Trustees member Belinda Tanoto joined top philanthropists, business families and influential impact investors at the UBS Philanthropy Forum Asia in Singapore in June 2016. She shared her insights on how the Foundation tackles complex and challenging issues in Indonesia’s education system.

She spoke on the importance of improving education and education infrastructure, recounting how her parents, Sukanto Tanoto and Tinah Bingei Tanoto, had to leave school to support their respective families. When Sukanto Tanoto expanded his business later, he observed many families facing the same realities he had to endure, and that the opportunities for education were lost.

With programmes such as Pelita Pendidikan, and collaborative partnerships with schools, government and communities, Tanoto Foundation aims to drive excellence in education in rural Indonesia, and nurture the next generation of leaders and game-changers who can join the poverty alleviation endeavour.

Belina Tanoto also talked about challenges Tanoto Foundation faces in a complex cultural and socio-political climate, while trying to achieve its goals in an efficient and sustainable way. The Foundation has also learned to be adaptable as it continues to be collaborative and consultative, bringing to fruition ground-up programmes that support education, drive empowerment of communities to live their lives with dignity and improve their living standards, and enhancement the quality of living - the 3 E's that underpin Tanoto Foundation's vision.

"Innovation happens in the frontline, not in HQ" - Belinda Tanoto

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