Dr Ong Yew Jin

Director

Dr Ong Yew Jin enjoys teaching and working with students and healthcare partners so as to support hospice and community care in Cambodia. He treasures time spent with nature, and in his spare time enjoys carpentry. While he was training to be an emergency medicine physician, it was his experience in caring for his grandmother at home that led him to discover the field of palliative medicine. His work and experience in this area allowed him to better appreciate the key roles a person’s social situation, life narrative, and spirituality play in one’s health seeking behaviour and decision making. In some sense, his curiosity with death and dying at a young age came full circle as he accompanied those who were near the end of their life journeys. His Catholic Christian faith informs him of his approach to human life and living, though he has still much to learn. By being part of AWS, he hopes to contribute further to the dignity of human life, especially when it is in one of its most defenseless states. He truly believes how we treat the most vulnerable is how we define ourselves as a society.