PM Haze

"We work with the community to make positive changes."

Established in 2014, PM Haze (People's Movement to Stop Haze) envisions a world where everyone feels responsible for the clean air that they all enjoy. They want to empower people with the values, knowledge and means to drive a movement to stop haze.

In this interview, Benjamin Tay shares his experience workings as the Executive Director of PM Haze.

1. What is your role in PM.Haze?

I am the executive director.

2. Why did you choose this role?

The centre of it all is that I want to be socially and ecologically engaged.

I joined PM.Haze as a volunteer in 2015, fueled by a desire to stop haze and to understand more about the social justice and ecological issues around the transboundary haze problem. I was driven partly by a job that I saw meaning in, as well as an idealistic view of how we can change our world for the better. I believe that the future of work requires not only hard skills, but also skills like critical thinking and systems thinking, which I have had the opportunity to develop in my role at a non-profit organisation.

My previous roles at the Singapore International Foundation and National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre allowed me to appreciate the non-profit landscape at a broader level, to hone essential skills needed to run a smaller non-profit organisation.

3. What’s the most interesting event that you’ve encountered in your role?

Working on the ground in Indonesia allows me to appreciate whole new cultures, broadens my understanding of people, and helps me develop a more open mind.

4. What’s the greatest difficulty that you’ve encountered in your role?

I have never run an organisation before, let along run one on my own. Managing advocacy programmes, on-the-ground programmes, research, delivering talks and workshops cannot be done single-handedly.

However, developing and organising a community of like-minded individuals is always challenging due to their time commitments. Besides, involved individuals are usually strong-willed and opinionated, and the challenge is how we can manage these opinions positively to arrive at solutions.

5. Does PM.Haze welcome interns? If so, what are the eligibility criteria?

Yes, we welcome interns! We hope to work with Geography students at the upper secondary through JC levels. Kindly contact benjamin@pmhaze.org for more information.

6. How can readers access more information about PM.Haze?

They may access our website or our Facebook page. They may also write to me at benjamin@pmhaze.org.