Lim Hongrui

Being part of Project Luminaire this year, I wore two hats: designing the science curriculum as part of the programmes team, and cooking as one of the head chefs.

Standing over the stove for hours, the warmth I felt wasn't just physical. It came from knowing that the fire that had me sweating was cooking a meal that would ease a child's walk home for lunch, one less to-and-fro trip that day.

Designing the science curriculum meant working around the reality that many of the children had never handled proper lab equipment, so lessons had to be rebuilt from scratch to still spark the same curiosity with far less. I gained an appreciation for how much resourcefulness matters when you're trying to teach well.

Between the kitchen and the classroom, Project Luminaire gave me two different ways to serve the community, and both left me with the same gratitude: a chance to give something real, and everything I got to learn in return.