Tanoto Foundation Improves Quality of Living

The Tanoto Foundation was founded by Mr Sukanto Tanoto and his wife Tinah Bingei Tanoto in 1981 with the vision of improving lives in poverty stricken villages through education, empowerment and improved quality of living.

The Foundation financially assists public schools, and has awarded its first scholarships in 2006. To date over 20,000 individual scholarships have been provided for, 27,000 scholars have graduated from the schools built by the Tanoto Foundation, and more than 1,800 jobs have been created in local communities through the Small to Medium Enterprise programmes.

It improves the quality of living in Asia through medical research. Currently they are funding research for heart diseases and cancer, with Asia lymphoma being the focus of the latter. Mr Tanoto was quoted as saying “We are hopeful that Asia-focused lymphoma research will promote breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, thereby improving the quality of life for patients and their families.”

The Tanoto Foundation has donated substantial sums to Duke-NUS in 2009 to support diabetes research that focuses on the Asian ethnicity groups, their diet and culture.

On 17 May 2016 the Stroke Support Station (S3) was officially launched, which is a new wellness centre for rehabilitation for stroke survivors and their caretakers. The S3 program has specialized activities and itineraries to help stroke survivors to regain forms of mobility and acquire stress relieving techniques.

Despite having his education interrupted before being able to obtain his high school diploma to help support his family, he has become a globally accomplished, self-made entrepreneur. His implacable thirst for knowledge drives him to take up courses at some of the best universities throughout the world until this day. It is also part of the reason the Tanoto Foundation donated $4.5 million to the public library in Rizhao, China, as well as 200 000 books for the library, which has received over 1.07 million visitors since its official opening in 26 December 2015. Mr Sukanto Tanoto’s continuous success in his business ventures in widely acknowledged by his peers.