Habitat in the News
Home Maker
Tue, Oct 14, 2008 The Business Times
Amy Lee
Chief Executive Officer
Lovells Lee
& Lee
A FEW weekends out of the year, you'll find Amy Lee, chief executive officer of law firm Lovells Lee & Lee, engaged in back-bending work. Of the construction and cleaning sort. When she's not building brick houses from ground up in places like Batam or Romania, it could be cleaning out old folks' one-room flats in Bukit Merah. Not quite what one would expect from a high-flying lawyer, and Ms Lee is herself rather amazed at the turn of events that got her into building houses for the needy.
She has her twin daughters to thank for that, as five
years ago, her 14-year-old daughters had gone on a church-organised
house-building trip in Thailand. It was a programme with
Habitat for Humanity, an international non-profit, ecumenical
Christian housing organisation which aims to address poverty
housing.
The twins survived it and came back intact - which is
always good for first impressions - and Ms Lee was put on
Habitat's mailing list. 'One day, I was just going through my
mail, and saw the notice about a build in Mongolia, which
sounded exciting . . . so I signed up to go,' she relates.
'I signed up by myself then and joined a team of about
10. I didn't know anybody else before I went. And I ended up
having a great time.
'It was such a culture shock to live in dirty clothes,
to do manual labour . . . I had to wake up at 6 am in my US$5 a
night hotel to use the conveniences before going to the build
site. And this was a pit with two planks for my feet and four
walls around me, and gusts of wind coming from top and bottom -
not quite what I'm used to!'
For the Singaporean lawyer married to a businessman,
with four children, this was the first time that she'd ever had
to rough it out. 'It's not something that comes naturally to
Singaporeans because it's so built-up here, and we are quite
spoiled,' she admits.
'The Mongolians were just so poor. They didn't have
running water or electricity. But they're very accepting of it.
They don't complain. And what little they had, they shared.'
The physical labour, and having to live in very basic
conditions, was a totally new experience for Ms Lee, in her
mid-40s then, but what got her hooked - she subsequently
volunteered for builds in Sri Lanka (2005); Mongolia again in
2006; and last year, Romania - was, to put it simply, the
life-changing experience. 'For the first time, I've gone out
with people of the same mindset - to help the local community,'
she shares.
And doing a build is an equaliser, she says, recalling
how her team members in Sri Lanka included the Singapore
country head for Cathay Pacific and two who were unemployed.
'You realise you're all the same . . . you eat the same food
and do the same work. It doesn't matter who you are or who you
think you are; your credit cards are useless, and money does
nothing when you're in the middle of nowhere.'
What does she make of her experiences? Sri Lanka was a very hard build, she recalls. 'It was very challenging . . . it was so hot. And seeing the destruction . . . you realise that life's not fair. You can't change the world, but you can do a little to make it better.' she says.
'You learn a lot about yourself as well. People ask me
why I don't just give money - because professionals can build
better than I can, and there are people who can rough it out
better too. But Habitat is a two-way street. You go for builds
for yourself as well. You do what you can, and you discover who
you are,' she says.
After two international builds, Ms Lee subsequently
joined the board of directors of Habitat Singapore and became
the chairman in 2006.
She also cites the experience and the good friendships
she forged along the way - with members from the first build
who joined her for her second; and from the second build who
joined her on her third trip which she led as a team leader, to
Mongolia - as memorable. By then, she better understood what it
meant to 'manage expectations' of the team - 'I also knew where
to buy my cashmere stuff and how much money to bring!' - and
she had a goal too. 'My objective was that other team members
would end up as team leaders; and today, at least three have
led their own teams. That is a very good outcome for me;
because it means that people enjoyed that trip and the Habitat
experience, and they wanted to replicate it for others as
well.'
For someone who enjoys her holidays in cities such as London, Rome and Venice - 'where there are five star hotels', she says - it's not 'natural' for her to go on builds, she admits. 'The heart is willing, but the flesh is weak. But I tell myself to do it, because I've had such positive experiences. And after a trip, you're more balanced. You see life in proper perspective.'
Next year, Ms Lee is planning to go on a build with one
of her daughters and another with her older son and his friends
- the first time she's doing it with her children. 'They think
it's a cool idea . . . because they haven't had to squat above
a 13 m pit!' she quips.
'But it's good that they want to do it - my daughters
gained so much confidence after their first trip. And 'poor'
isn't just a word in the dictionary anymore for them.'
To really enjoy life, you have to do the whole spectrum,
muses Ms Lee. 'It's like eating $3 wonton mee and a fancy
oyster dinner. That's life . . . if you rough it out, you know
you'll survive.'
'I make donations to charitable causes still, but I've
gotten to the stage that when you give money and also volunteer
your time and effort, you understand why you're doing it.'
This article was first published in
The Business Times
on Oct 11, 2008