Jakarta, One Year On

A year ago this month I landed in Jakarta with no agenda. It was an impromptu trip — Jakarta, then Kuala Lumpur, then Hong Kong — and I expected nothing from it beyond movement. After twenty years of travelling the world, I quietly believed I had seen everything. I had not.

In the lesser-seen parts of Indonesia I met people who had remarkably little and offered kindness remarkably freely. Tea from families counting the cost of the kettle. Directions walked, not pointed. I have been welcomed in palaces and boardrooms, and I mean this without romance: I had never seen generosity offered so easily by people for whom generosity was expensive.

I came home with a conviction that would not sit down. With my knowledge, my capital and my connections, I could help — and therefore must. In May 2026 that conviction became World Aid Network, a UK humanitarian charity headquartered at International House on Borough High Street, funding sight-restoring surgery, cancer care and emergency disaster relief, with an Emergency Fund built to move within twenty-four hours of a crisis.

People ask why the founding story matters. Because it explains the shape of the charity. We keep overheads deliberately low because I met the people those overheads would otherwise feed. We work through local partners because I saw first-hand that local kindness needs reinforcement, not replacement.

One year on, the lesson of that trip is still sharpening: proximity is the beginning of responsibility. Once you have stood somewhere, you cannot honestly stand aside.