Tee Ling Wah
The Drive to Contribute
Mappig Motherhood: The Mama ArchiveHello! Ling Wah here. I am a social designer and illustrator who enjoys bringing ideas, people, and stories together. With a background in graphic design, illustration, and UI/UX, I like to explore transdisciplinary social design, working closely with communities and responding to real-world issues in thoughtful ways.
I am particularly interested in where visual communication meets lived experiences, using images, interfaces, and narratives to make complex topics more accessible, engaging, and meaningful. I also enjoy creating ethnographic storytelling through illustration, translating research and insights into visual narratives.
I have a soft spot for cute mascots (especially Chiikawa!).
I’m always open to new opportunities, collaborations, and conversations. Feel free to reach out :)
The Drive to Contribute
| “I want to help, but I don’t know how to…” |
| This project is a 9-month research study conducted within a community, centred around a self-led exercise group that was initiated at the beginning of the project. In its early stages, we facilitated the group’s activities, creating space for seniors to come together regularly. Over time, facilitation was gradually stepped back, allowing the group to continue on its own terms and evolve independently. The focus of this project is to examine how seniors in a community participate and contribute, and to question what “contribution” really means. At the start, I was trying to understand how people move from being just participants to becoming contributors, as if it were a clear step-by-step process. But after collecting responses and stories from seniors, the findings showed that it is not that simple. Instead of a straight path, I found that people engage in different ways at different times. Some seniors may take on visible roles, like helping to organize activities or leading others. But many others contribute in quieter ways, such as showing up regularly, supporting others, or simply being present. These forms of contribution are often not recognised, even though they are important to the community. I also explored motivation. It shows that being motivated does not always mean someone will participate more, and someone who participates a lot may not always feel highly motivated. This means the relationship between motivation and participation is not direct or predictable. Through tools like simple prompt cards and interviews, the project gathers seniors’ own views on what contribution means to them. This helps reveal that contribution is personal and can look very different for each individual. Overall, the project suggests that community participation is not about moving up a ladder from “less active” to “more active.” Instead, it is a mix of different roles and behaviors that change over time. It also highlights that we should not only value visible contributions but also recognise quieter, less obvious ways people take part. This project aims to create a more inclusive understanding of contribution, especially for seniors, by showing that every form of participation can hold value in a community. |