SINGAPORE
Jerome Ong
Multilingual policy researcher, social-impact founder and youth advocate.
I study how communication barriers prevent people from accessing education, economic opportunity and public institutions, and I build programmes designed to close those gaps across Southeast Asia.
Communication is not a soft skill. It functions as infrastructure. People lose access to education, government services and employment when they cannot navigate the language, communication norms, or institutional expectations of a system. I work where that gap opens: in classrooms, in a constituency office and in refugee education. The question underneath all of it is who gets to be understood, and who is left explaining themselves to a system that is not listening.
What access adds up to
Learners, residents and villagers across four initiatives since November 2024. Each counts its own.
Constituency casework and classroom sessions where language or communication was the obstacle.
Trained or working alongside me at Project Flare and Project Reperio. Separate teams, no overlap.
A special education school, a constituency office, refugee education online and a Cambodian village.
These count who was reached. Each project page says what its own figures do and do not show.
Flagship initiatives removing barriers
Project Flare:
Communication and disability inclusion
A volunteer-built communication curriculum delivered with Grace Orchard School, designed so that neurodiverse students can advocate for themselves.
MY ROLE
Co-founder, curriculum design, volunteer training, partnership management
IMPACT
100 students directly reached
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Weekly constituency casework in Singapore, roughly half of it conducted in Mandarin, turning residents' spoken concerns into written cases that government agencies can act on.
MY ROLE
Casework volunteer, Mandarin translation and case writing
IMPACT
More than100 cases handled
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Meet-the-People Sessions:
Mandarin, policy and civic access
Project Reperio:
Refugee education and sustainable access
Education for refugee students in Johor Bahru, delivered on Zoom, where the cost of mobile data decides who can attend.
MY ROLE
Tutor (academic track), executive committee, publicity
IMPACT
80 young people aged 14 to 18 reached
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Research and ideas on inclusive policy
PEER-REVIEWED
A Weapon of Mass Distraction
International Journal of High School Research, June 2026
COMMENTARY
The Language of Exclusion: When Policy Speaks and You Cannot Follow
Policy Commentary, March 2026
Language as access to institutions
I have volunteered at the weekly Meet-the-People Session in my own ward, Telok Blangah, since November 2024. About half the cases I help with are in Mandarin. Not classroom Mandarin: an elderly resident describing a housing problem, and the work of turning that into something an agency will act on. Mandarin is how I reach the problem at all.
Weekly Meet-the-People Session, Telok Blangah, 2025.
How can business, public policy and local institutions work together to make communication access durable across Southeast Asia?