Working in collaboration with NUS Sustainability, RVRC hosted the 2023 Rolex Awards for Enterprise Laureate, Ms. Denica Riadini-Flesch. The special dialogue on 13 March 2024, open to the entire NUS community, was to enable students to learn about Denica's experience in founding and leading SukkhaCitta. SukkhaCitta is a social enterprise that empowers craftswomen and smallholder farmers by developing a regenerative farm-to-closet clothing supply chain. Through this dialogue, the NUS community learned about Denica’s efforts to preserve local Indonesian culture and create a positive impact on the natural environment by leveraging on indigenous wisdom to grow cotton regeneratively and reintroducing natural dyes to colour the fabrics.
The dialogue was closely aligned with the RVRC mission on enhancing sustainability education and stewardship; the speaker inspired the student audience to explore the positive impacts that youth can make on sustainable development, the role of indigenous people in achieving sustainability, and the importance of a contextualised approach to implementing sustainability solutions. RVRC celebrates with Ms. Denica on her achievements and we express our appreciation to Rolex for hosting RVRC students at their earlier cocktail reception.