Better Health, Better Lives

I joined the Lions Club of Serdang on an outreach initiative to an Orang Asli village four hours from Kuala Lumpur, and met families whose resilience I still think about.

Many Orang Asli communities live far from regular healthcare, schools, and basic necessities. Contaminated food and water make intestinal worm infections widespread — a condition that is simple to treat and devastating when left untreated, especially in children.

I met parents who walked an hour through harsh weather because, for once, there were medical professionals nearby who genuinely cared — and food they could trust. I saw children light up over book bags and toys. I watched volunteers work through the heat because they believed every person deserves a chance at a healthier life.

That experience changed me.

It made me realize that healthcare isn't only about treating illness. It's about giving people the opportunity to live fully. That realization became a conviction I couldn't set down — and Better Health, Better Lives is what I built with it.

BHBL grew into a major sponsor for Lions Club chapters across Malaysia, funding outreach that could finally match the scale of the need. I took on fundraising and marketing — convincing business owners and community leaders that this was worth backing.

With those funds, we launched one of the largest outreach events many of these Lions Club chapters had run — distributing school supplies, clean food and water, nutritional supplements, health screenings, and deworming medication.

That was BHBL 1.0.

I began to understand that helping a community shouldn't end when an outreach program ends.

If Better Health, Better Lives was going to create lasting impact, we needed to connect community work with education, science, and research.

That belief brought us to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Through Dato Dr. Lai, executive leader of the Lions Club of Serdang, I was introduced to Professor Ir. Dr. Riza Sulaiman, Professor Dr Mohammad Nazir Ahmad, Dr. Mohamed Afiq Hidayat and the IVI team at UKM. They walked me through what they'd been building — an approach where research, healthcare, and technology come together to create something more sustainable.

And so it began.

This became the next evolution of Better Health, Better Lives: BHBL 2.0 and the G6PD Immersive Blood Research Initiative.

We started a new round of fundraising, building on the momentum of the first initiative, to donate research and lab supplies to UKM and the IVI team.

For me, G6PD represented something bigger than a research project.

It showed me that a journey that started with one community could grow into something capable of reaching many. I didn't understand the genetics in detail. But I understood that this research could help populations far beyond the village where I started, and that was enough to make it worth everything I had.

BHBL was becoming a bridge. Between communities and the science meant to serve them. Between today's needs and tomorrow's solutions.

We were moving past single-day outreach events and into research, innovation, and lasting solutions.

In California, the KJ Institute honored me with the Youth Leadership and Policy Impact Gold Medal, recognizing the journey and impact of Better Health, Better Lives.

It was a proud moment. But what mattered more was what it made me see.

Something that had begun quietly in an Orang Asli community in Malaysia had grown into research with a national university — and was now being recognized on the other side of the world.

Through the KJ Institute, I also had the opportunity to connect with A.C. Green — the NBA's legendary Iron Man, who played 1,192 consecutive games and won three championships with the Lakers. He has spent the decades since building something more durable than a record. Since founding the A.C. Green Youth Foundation in 1989, he has mentored young people on self-esteem, character, and the choices that shape a life — work recognized in the U.S. House of Representatives' Congressional Record in 1999.

We met at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena on April 26, 2026. I got to hear what drives him and what he's building next — and to make clear that I want to be a partner in it, supporting his foundation's work here in the U.S. Spending that time with someone who has given so much of his life to young people left me eager to do my part.

During our conversation, he shared the phrase that has defined his career and his message to every young person he works with:

Being POOR means you Pass Over Opportunities Regularly.

That stayed with me. Because my own journey has been made of opportunities.

The opportunity to come to Malaysia. The opportunity to meet communities unlike my own. The opportunity to work alongside researchers at UKM and the determined, generous members of the Lions Club. And most recently, the opportunity to be recognized for it.

Which raised a question I couldn't shake:

Why should it stop with me?

The Gold Medal was extremely meaningful, but its real value came from the people it connected me with — like A.C. Green — and the opportunities that came with them.

I wanted to bring that value back to Malaysia. I wanted young Malaysians to have access to international leaders, global perspectives, and platforms where their ideas could be heard.

So I began connecting the people and institutions that had become part of my own journey.

The relationship I had built with the KJ Institute in California met the relationship BHBL had built with UKM in Malaysia. At the same time, it turned out the KJ Institute was already well acquainted with a previous BHBL donor, Roths Investment Bank.

What began as recognition became a network.

And that network became an opportunity for others.

In July 2026, we launched the UKM Global Impact Challenge — where any Malaysian student willing to take a chance on improving their community could win an RM2,000 scholarship backed by Roths Investment Bank, along with recognition from the KJ Institute.

For me, it was more than another event. It represented the next evolution of Better Health, Better Lives.

We began by bringing healthcare to communities. We moved into research and innovation through G6PD. And now, we were creating opportunities for others to connect with the world.

As Better Health, Better Lives has grown — from village outreach to university research to global impact challenges — we've held onto one core principle: being the most reliable partner anyone could ask for.

So in July 2026, partnering with the Lions Club of Serdang and several other Lions Club chapters across Malaysia, we returned to the work that started all of this — traveling to another Orang Asli village with school supplies, clean food and water, nutritional supplements, health screenings, and deworming medication.

The scale had changed. The reason hadn't.

When I look back, I realize that every stage of this journey has been connected by one simple idea:

One opportunity creates another.

A family connection brought me to Malaysia.

A community taught me the meaning of service.

A conversation with A.C. Green taught me the importance of opportunity.

G6PD and UKM showed me how research could grow into lasting impact.

Recognition from the KJ Institute gave me an international platform.

And instead of letting that opportunity end with me, I brought it back to Malaysia to create opportunities for others.

That, to me, is what Better Health, Better Lives has become.

It is about healthcare, but it is also about dignity.

It is about research, but it is also about possibility.

It is about leadership, but ultimately, it is about creating opportunities for other people.

And when people from different communities, universities, countries, and generations come together, a small act of kindness can become something much bigger.

I came to Malaysia because of my family's connection there.

But somewhere along the way, Malaysia became part of my own story.

I was fortunate enough to be given opportunities throughout this journey.

Now, I want to pass them forward.

This began with a simple desire to help one community.

Today, it is a shared mission.