Founders Feature: Yoke Pean Thye and Hironimus Gesu, Founders, ActSEA
ActSEA at the ASEAN for the People's Conference in October 2025.
1. Tell us about ActSEA. What does it do and who does it help?
Yoke Pean/Hiro: Action for Change in Southeast Asia (ActSEA) is a regional non-profit collective active in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore, whose vision is for an equitable and sustainable Southeast Asia. Our belief is that transformative, long-lasting change in communities is best achieved when community members have the power to make decisions about their own lives. Therefore, our approach prioritises hiring community members to address the needs and aspirations of their own communities. Because of this approach, ActSEA’s projects span a wide range of causes, from education to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) to disaster response.
Water survey and pipe tracking with village staff in Pumbuwae, Nagekeo Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province.
2.What led you to start the organisation?
Yoke Pean: ActSEA was co-founded by Dian and me, who were post-graduate students at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) at that time. I can’t speak to Dian’s experience, but from my perspective, it was a combination of motivation, luck, and opportunity. After observing the many ways in which the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector had been failing grassroots communities over the years, I was keen to try a different approach to development. It so happened that Dian had similar ideas around doing something of our own. My participation in the ASEAN Youth Volunteer Program in 2015 provided us with a small grant to run a project at ITB. And we never looked back!
Yoke Pean on a visit to ActSEA's Keka Neamu Community Hub in Indonesia in 2023.
3.How does your background in engineering support your work in the nonprofit space?
Yoke Pean: Studying a degree in civil and environmental engineering gave me the basic knowledge and tools to understand the technical aspects of the challenges faced by communities today, particularly in areas such as infrastructure, access to water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as climate change. My engineering education also comes in useful when dealing with basic IT issues. (Thankfully, we have a volunteer who helps us with more complex matters!). Beyond that, I believe my four years of engineering education trained me to approach problem-solving in a systematic and structured way.
Hiro: Back in 2011, I chose geodesy engineering because I thought it was the safest bet for a job. I didn’t even know the nonprofit sector existed! Looking back, those engineering skills have become fundamental to my path. My background helps me design community programs with a level of precision that ensures we aren’t just doing what we think is right, but what is actually the most effective solution for the people we serve. Someone once told me, “With your heart and hands, you are going to make a big difference to a lot of people.” This question made me realise that over the past 10 years, my engineering background has provided me with the “head” and the “hands” to help make that vision a reality.
Yoke Pean with the Climate Hack team from Singapore International Foundation, ActSEA and Kidzstarter, together with the volunteer judges.
4.How would you encourage someone who wants to make a change, but may be held back by circumstances?
Hiro: Knowing my positionality is very important, especially working in the nonprofit sector and being part of the community itself. It’s like being mindful in every word and action, and which hat is being used. The boundaries are sometimes very subtle. I would say this to people: embrace yourselves. Sometimes we might do stupid and dumb things, but we are here for a reason. Through embracing ourselves first, something will spark from inside, and we all have that unique light waiting for us to spark it on.
Hiro leading a workshop training teachers to provide psychological support to students affected by the floods in Nagekeo.
5.What is your biggest lesson from running ActSEA?
Yoke Pean: People make the organisation. ActSEA’s work is a reflection of the culture of community and care that has been built and rebuilt by its team members since we started. That’s why we are very intentional about the staff we hire. That’s why I go into work (and life) each day doing my best to act in accordance with the vision of the world I wish to see.
Hiro: Commitment to community. Nowadays, there are many buzzwords, and at some point, I see those big words becoming slogans with empty meaning. Why am I saying this? Growing up in a small village that is still behind in terms of proper tech infrastructure and living alongside the community we work with, I think it gives me a certain privilege as someone who works in a nonprofit organisation, while at the same time being part of the community itself.
I have witnessed that the organisation does not simply use “equitable” as a buzzword. It is not easy, and we are not yet in an ideal space, but the way we as an organisation commit to small steps every day gives me hope. When the energy goes both ways within the people, amazing things can happen.
'Imagine' session with elementary school teachers on how to make a fun and interesting class at SDI Padhapae, Raja Timur Village, Nagekeo Regency. This is part of an initiative helping teachers integrate technology into classroom activities.
6. What does success mean to you?
Yoke Pean: Success for me would be to be able to live in a world that genuinely loves and cares for people and nature. But I don’t think that will be attainable in our generation (or ever), so I content myself with doing my best each day.
Hiro: Success, to me, is putting a dent in this life and seeing more smiles from people because of what I am doing, rather than numbers in reports or publications. I know it is a long journey, but someday it will pay off (I wish), and I still have a chance to say this peacefully: “Finally, we are here.”
ActSEA is working with students from the Singapore University of Social Sciences to develop a financial literacy game for youth from under-resourced families.
7.What keeps you hopeful about the future of Southeast Asia?
Yoke Pean: To be honest, I’m not hopeful about the future of Southeast Asia. But I feel that giving up is not an option for me (right now), so I just keep going. And maybe one day I’ll wake up feeling different.
Hiro: I just feel like everyone deserves a better life, and when I still have a chance to wake up every morning, it means there’s a chance to step forward. I am not very sure, but someone told me this years ago: Follow Your Heart. Being a tremendously curious person helps me to stay on this path that I choose.
