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Eco-initiative GUI to continue despite founder's death

This article is more than 12 months old

Ground-Up Initiative (GUI), the non-profit organisation that aims to nurture grounded leaders and model a Singapore society with a sustainable future, will continue with its work despite the death of its founder Tay Lai Hock on Tuesday.

Council member Mei Chang said at the wake at Block 230 Simei Street 4 yesterday: "I am in GUI because I believe in it. Most of our lives have changed because of Lai Hock. Why shouldn't we continue?"

Ms Chang, 49, said her eight years in the organisation had made her more rooted in Singapore and strengthened her belief in the country.

COLLAPSED

Mr Tay, 54, collapsed on Tuesday morning at work, and was found unconscious by a friend. He could not be revived and was taken in an ambulance to hospital, where he later died.

Asked who would lead GUI, which now owes $300,000 in construction costs alone, volunteer coordinator Koo Hui Ying said the five-member council would take the organisation through this transition before deciding on the next move.

"Right now, our focus is on supporting Lai Hock's family and arranging his memorial service on Saturday," said Ms Koo, 28, adding: "We will take the next concrete steps next week."

Though general volunteering activities at GUI have been postponed, other pre-planned programmes such as corporate team building and farming courses are still running.

Mr Tay founded eco-community GUI in 2008 to create a "21st century kampung culture" in the heart of cosmopolitan Singapore, tending to that vision on a 26,000 sq m piece of land in Yishun dubbed Kampung Kampus.

It has since welcomed about 20,000 volunteers and runs about 100 programmes yearly, aiming to foster a connection with the land through experiential and nature-led learning.

It will also be where Mr Tay's body will be taken on Saturday for a "celebration of his life" before the cremation.

Ms Chang said: "We will be playing and singing his favourite songs. We will sing with him for the last time."

Death