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From migrant workers and media freedom to housing slums, this book captures the gamut of social issues that plague Asia, telling the stories behind thirteen committed individuals who have effected great change in their respective causes.

These stories are about the behemoths such as Dharma Master Cheng Yen from Taiwan and Sir Fazle Hasan Abed from Bangladesh who lead some of the world’s largest nongovernmental organisations; to Aki Ra from Cambodia and Sompop Jakantra from Thailand whose smaller teams have saved hundreds of lives from landmines and prostitution respectively.

The social heroes portrayed have pursued seemingly quotidian causes that citizens of developed countries may take for granted, such as toilets in India, decent housing for the poor in Hong Kong, and mainly making life better for those whom society appears to have forgotten.
“The people working to address social issues are not always as well-documented as the issues themselves…it is important to bring an awareness of them into the mainstream media. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by societal injustice, but these stories show that even when you can’t count on your government to protect your rights, individuals working in social justice can make positive change.”
– Camille Neale, AWARE

“This book is an excellent snapshot of 12 Asian countries and their circumstances and challenges.”
– Cheong Suk-Wai, The Straits Times
Willie Cheng is a former partner of Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm. Prior to his retirement in 2003, he was the country managing director for Singapore and the managing partner of its Communications and High Tech practice in Asia.

Since his retirement, he has stayed involved with the business and the infocomm community. However, he spends the larger part of his time working with nonprofit organizations at the board and volunteer level. Among these, he is chairman of the Lien Centre for Social Innovation and Caritas Singapore.

He was formerly chairman of the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre where he started applying his management consulting background to nonprofit work.

He has written extensively on the nonprofit sector. This book, his first, is a distillation of these writings, updated for an international context.

Sharifah Mohamed is a lecturer at Republic Polytechnic, a tertiary institution in Singapore. She was formerly with the Lien Centre for Social Innovation where co-edited The World That Changes the World: How philanthropy, innovation and entrepreneurship are transforming the social ecosystem with Cheng.

Cheryl Tang is formerly a business consultant with Accenture focused on maximising human performance. After she left the corporate world, she has been helping non-profit organizations and working with social entrepreneurs in her roles leading apVentures, a venture philanthropy organisation, and Credit Suisse’s SymAsia Foundation.

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Doing Good Great: Thirteen Asian Heroes and Their Causes