My mom has asked a few times what it is that I do. It's a tough one. Usual titles such as banker, engineer, doctor, architect, etc. would be most fathomable to an all-time Vietnamese that she is. "Public servant" would be boring and not be descriptive enough. Well, let me see if what I've done the past few days can put a nice ring to it.

I met the founder of Dignity Kitchen again tonight at an Impact Chat. Just like the first time, he shared the most candid anecdotes of meaningful, hard-earned employment for people with disabilities in Singapore. And this businessman sure knows how to sustain such success stories! Instead of corporate big wigs, I often get to meet the who's who in social sector, people that do good well.

About the Impact Chat - it's a regular platform by IIX Asia and Shujog that shares entrepreneurial approaches to improve social conditions. It's fascinating to know about IIX Asia and Shujog's work on impact investing. A key part of my job is to help develop an ecosystem of international events in the social sector here in Singapore, and their Impact Forum last June was a great piece.

On this note, the inaugural Philanthropy in Asia Summit this September should be an excellent meeting to promote new thinking to philanthropic activities (good to see the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network among the organising partners). It's satisfying to see something I believe in coming to life.

Earlier during lunch, I met the founder of the Visayan Forum Foundation, an NGO dedicated to fight human trafficking in the Philippines. USAID has been a main supporter (fair enough, since most victims end up in the West). This was at a talk hosted by newly-established Hub Singapore, part of a global Hub network catering to social entrepreneurs and the first official Hub in Asia. 2012 has been a good year for Singapore with many such notable developments!

A few days back, I got to know more about the Rainforest Cuisine from Qi founder herself. Forests are a rich food source. Yet barren Scandinavia is home to some of the world's best restaurants, while Southeast Asia is burning our Borneo away (a real-life Avatar story). So some of the top chefs in Singapore are heading to Borneo to select jungle-deep ingredients for their new dishes, for people to have a taste of the importance of the rainforest.

So this is a typical week of work, that to me is atypical at the same time. I am with a tourism board and deep-diving as much as I can into the social sector. This has worked out fine for me so far, honing my professional tourism career and keeping me in touch with the humane side of the world.

That's it for this week! I'm off to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. Come party if you're in town!