Commissioning Foundations
By commissioning BOTH SIDES, NOW, the Lien Foundation and ACM Foundation seek to encourage greater die-logues and reflection on end-of-life issues. They hope to heighten end-of-life awareness of patients, caregivers and the medical professionals by bringing the platform and chance of engagement on such issues to the Khoo Teck Puat Hospital - a place where these audiences interact; and where issues of life and death intersect.
BOTH SIDES, NOW is the third initiative of the three-part collaboration between the two foundations. The first project was Design for Death, an international design competition that presented innovations in deathcare for the future. The second project commissioned a study that unveiled 24 principles of design to position hospices for the future.
The Lien Foundation is a Singapore philanthropic house noted for its model of radical philanthropy. It breaks new ground by investing in innovative solutions, convening strategic partnerships and catalysing action on social and environmental challenges. The Foundation seeks to foster exemplary early childhood education, excellence in eldercare and effective environmental sustainability in water and sanitation.
In its mission to advance eldercare, the Foundation advocates better care of the dying. One of its flagship programmes, the Life Before Death initiative, was first conceived in 2006 to create greater public awareness about end-of-life issues in Singapore. It sought to de-stigmatise death and dying by spurring various ‘die-logues’ with the use of social media, art, films and photography and advocacy though research. Creative projects such as the Happy Coffins, the Last Outfit and Obitcheery got people to confront their own mortality in unconventional ways.
The initiative has since gone beyond Singapore. In 2010, the Foundation commissioned the first-ever global Quality of Death index ranking 40 countries on their provision of end-of-life care. In 2013, the Foundation co-organised the inaugural international Design for Death competition that presented innovations in deathcare for the future.
The ACM Foundation is an independent, non-profit organisation formed by Ang Chin Moh Funeral Directors in commemoration of its 100-year heritage. The Foundation aims at enhancing the perception of death and bereavement among the public, uplift the deathcare profession and advance philanthropy in this area. The ACM Foundation will also champion and preserve the heritage of funeral and bereavement services in Singapore.