When the Indian Ocean tsunami hit in 2004, hundreds of thousands lost their lives—and millions more were forever altered.  

For Tai-Ring Teh, a civil engineer, the tsunami recovery set him on an unexpected path as a humanitarian. Using his engineering skills to help provide clean water for communities who had lost everything in Aceh, Indonesia, he has since devoted his career to supporting people affected by crisis.  

From the Solomon Islands to Rwanda, from Nepal to South Sudan and beyond—Tai-Ring has used his engineering skills to help communities gain or regain access to safe water and improved sanitation. 

Today, Tai-Ring shares this wealth of experience as a RedR Australia roster member and associate trainer, where he is passionate about mentoring the next generation of humanitarian engineers. 

In this episode, Tai-Ring chats with Sally about his formative experiences in the humanitarian sector, the life-sustaining value of water, and why mentoring is essential to developing our next generation of humanitarian and development leaders. 

Host: Sally Cunningham 

Guest: Tai-Ring Teh 

Producer, engineer and composer: Jill Farrar 

You can join our conversations on LinkedIn and Facebook. 

You can find out more about RedR Australia’s training courses here. 

Transcript 

SALLY: This Humanitarian Conversations podcast was recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, also known as Melbourne, Australia. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and we acknowledge and seek to champion the continued connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to land, waterways and skies. And we pay our respects to all First Nations people whose communities we work in across the world. Hello and welcome to Humanitarian Conversations, a RedR Australia podcast which explores what it means to be humanitarian in today's world. I'm Sally Cunningham. In this episode of Humanitarian Conversations, I have the pleasure of chatting with Tai-Ring Teh, an incredibly experienced humanitarian engineer, RedR Australia roster member and associate trainer. Tai-Ring grew up in Malaysia where, from an early age, he took a deep interest in how engineering can transform people’s lives for the better. When the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami hit, it gave him the opportunity to apply his civil engineering skills to make a significant difference for communities in Aceh, Indonesia. Since that life-altering experience, Tai-Ring has devoted his career to supporting people affected by crisis. From the Solomon Islands to Rwanda, from Nepal to South Sudan and beyond, Tai-Ring has used his engineering skills to help communities gain or regain access to safe water and improved sanitation, and has worked for organisations such as the Red Cross, UNICEF, UNHCR and the World Health Organization. With his depth of experience, Tai-Ring also mentors up-and-coming humanitarian engineers and, as a longstanding RedR Australia associate trainer, he loves to share his wealth of knowledge on our courses and train professionals to be ready for the field. Thank you so much for joining us today, Tai-Ring. Now, your career has taken you around the world to some interesting and complex places, but it all started for you in Malaysia. Could you give us some insight into what it was like growing up in Malaysia and what the community taught you about disaster preparedness and response? 

TAI-RING: I'm really happy that you mentioned this one. Malaysia is a very fortunate country where there is hardly any major natural disaster apart from seasonal flooding during monsoon. So there isn't much of the disaster preparedness or experience that I grew up with. And also I did join the Malaysian Red Cresent as an ordinary member of my high school. We were just learning the basic first aid. So that was the basic emergency preparedness I have ever had in Malaysia until the Indian Ocean tsunami happened on Boxing Day 2004. That was totally unexpected, and it was the biggest natural disaster, even for Malaysia, in history. So for humanitarian workers in Malaysia, we see humanitarian work as volunteer work, and also for charities. So a lot of my friends wouldn't even understand what kind of work I'm working in. We just don't have the opportunity to actually do anything.  

SALLY: Look, I can relate to that. A lot of people don't—unless they work in the sector directly—they don't have a comprehensive idea of what humanitarian work might be and how it is a very much dedicated career. Now, I know you started your career as a civil engineer, but you're known for your expertise as a humanitarian and WASH engineer. What drew you to engineering initially, and what was your first job?  

TAI-RING: You know, it's very interesting that you're mentioning it. It actually give me some some soul searching on what exactly started me on engineering and what actually put me on this particular path. It was not my actual very first job, but it's my high school time summer job that I actually went over to my father's construction work site, which is in a remote jungle in Malaysia, building a hydro power dam—a mini hydro power dam, not a big one—to provide electricity to the nomadic people in the jungle. When we're talking about the jungle, I mean literally, I remember I had to go in for about two or three hours of dirt road inside the jungle, and then walk about half an hour just to reach the work site. That particular work was sponsored by the World Bank for Malaysia rural development, bringing the electricity into what we call the indigenous community in the Malaysia Peninsula. And that was the time that I actually decided to go into civil engineering, because I love it, and that related to what I'm doing as a full-time humanitarian. That very beginning, that spark—what I love. 

SALLY: Yeah, that is, there's definitely a connection there, working in those rural communities and using your expertise to help build that access. That's a very good foundation, I think. 

TAI-RING: Yeah, thank you. When the tsunami hit and on the reconstruction effort on Aceh, where I actually decided to continue and down this path, is because I found what I was initially like to do as an engineer. That really put me into walking further and further into the humanitarian work. Yeah. 

SALLY: So it is hard to believe that the Indian Ocean tsunami was over 21 years ago, and it's still such a significant event in the region's disaster memory, and with so many lessons learned that have informed work from that time. So this event was a big turning point for your career, too. So can you share with us what that was like and how you were called to support? 

TAI-RING: I was a volunteer for Malaysian Red Crescent Society. So when the Boxing Day tsunami happened, I was actually in post-party mode at that time. I didn't even turn on the TV. The friends that I was with couldn't reach me in any way. Now they thought that I have disappeared in this tsunami, which I have absolutely...didn't know anything about it. And after they found out that I was okay, what they did was that they raised a fund and put me onto the street to raise funding for the Malaysian Red Crescent, which I did. A group of us put it over to Malaysian Red Cresent Society with the condition that a couple of us will have a chance to go to help the people who were caught in the disaster. So I, myself, was deployed to Aceh. I ended up that I was the only engineer. The rest of it is all medical staff. And when I was on the ground, I was very fast, picked up by the Federal IFRC, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, to help out in terms of water distribution and also treatment and the sanitation side, very fast. And then working together with the Australian Defence Force, which was also stationed over there. That was the first time also knowing what is RedR Australia, because still a very good friend Tonga Lee was deployed over there on behalf of IFRC and RedR Australia, together with Australian Aid. So that was the time where I just realised my skill, that I learned, and I've been practised in the private sector in Malaysia in the construction industry and also the water treatment industry, was really, really needed in this particular humanitarian sector. There were virtually no one there. And combined with my first experience, I say, 'Wow, this is something that I really like to do, and I can contribute a lot.' That started up my nearly 20 years of career in humanitarian [sector].  

SALLY: That's a wonderful story. You don't know when you're needed, but the fact that you're ready and you've got great skills to contribute, that's what is needed. And as that was your step deeper into the humanitarian sector, where did that take you next? 

TAI-RING: So the years of all the preparedness that I learned from the Malaysian Red Cresent Society, combined with on-the-site experience, I was leading the UNICEF disaster response in various parts of Indonesia. For example, the Yogyakarta earthquake [2006], the Padang [2009] and Mentawai [2010] earthquakes, and also the Semarang flooding. Indonesia, at that time, was full of natural disasters, one after the other. At the same time, I was contacted by RedR to see whether there is a possibility I can provide some training in Australia for water and sanitation. That's when I started drafting the water and sanitation course. It was back in 2006/7 and I actually started the training in 2008. Still, until today, it's still running from time to time.  

SALLY: Now it seems like you have deep experience that has stemmed from that time in OCHA, but also across Indonesia, as you've just mentioned. But you've also spent quite a bit of time in African countries as well as other parts of Asia. So can you tell us a little bit about a deployment or humanitarian role you've been a part of, where you were able to see the positive impact you and your team made for the families and the communities that you were living in at the time? 

TAI-RING: There are many, many, many examples. Almost every deployment it touches the community. One of the things that I do know, as compared to the traditional engineering, is the traditional engineering doesn't looking at the beneficiary that much. But humanitarian engineering, it's really putting the human factor above the technical know-how. That means that you have to putting into your beneficiary more as to what are the things that you do it will benefit the community. Now I just want to bring it back to the very first humanitarian work, which is actually back in the Aceh. There is one particular area where it's northeast of Aceh that was completely wiped out by tsunami. And for us to have the villagers come back and rebuild their own village, the very first thing is to get the water running. I started to go into the island—it would take about six hours of boats just to reach the island. I still draw back my memory when I was 14, 15 years old in Malaysia—the memory where I worked in the rural mini-hydro project. And using that particular knowledge to work with the tsunami survivors of that island, to draw out how to catch the water catchment in their jungle, to pipe the water back into the rebuilt village. I draw out a very simple dam. And hiring the villagers and saying, Okay, I'll give you the money for your labor to build it. Now they know that this is for their own good, for their own water supply. They overdone my expectation. Instead of making a simple water supply system, they make it into something very grand, very big, very permanent. That, even to me, was a surprise, that they not only take the project as their own, they expand it and insisted that this is much better. And I was very touched by that. I went back to Aceh in 2023 and one of the person that I met at the airport remember me, one of the residents on the island, he still remembers me. And he told me the water supply that I built, that I designed, is still running. And everybody loved it. 

SALLY: Amazing 

TAI-RING: And that was a very good indicator of people really appreciating the work that we done.  

SALLY: That's a really touching story. I can hear it in your voice as well. We look at how we review projects and impact, and all you need is to run into someone years later and understand the sustainability of your efforts.  

TAI-RING: But I also want to give you another one. I just remember that. This is something totally unexpected. Now in Myanmar, where I would deploy after Indonesia was Cyclone Nargis. So Cyclone Nargis was the most devastating natural disaster for Myanmar, or Burma—over 150,000 people died. So I was deployed as a UNICEF WASH specialist over there. And I went over the disaster zone, taking water samples and checking the water—whether it's suitable. Now unknowingly—I mean, everywhere I go, there are children that follow me wondering what we're doing. Now back in 2023—that is nearly 13 years after that particular work—I was giving a presentation of Humanitarian Engineering in University of Sydney. And in one of the courses, the lecturer invited me to give a talk for the class. Now, during the class, there's one student that stand up and put it up and saying that the reason he is in engineering is because he saw someone in the UN went to his village and taking water sample of the pond that he was using—his village was using—and make some tests. Now he saw that person and saying that I want to be that person when I grow up. And then, since then, he studied really hard—from the rural village into the national university in Yangon in Myanmar, and then get a scholarship for the Master's Degree in University of Sydney and study engineering, that he's intended to bring back to Myanmar to assist the building of the country.  

SALLY: Amazing.  

TAI-RING: And I asked him, Where in Myanmar that he saw this person? And he mentioning one particular area that he was there, and I know that he saw me. I was the only one that is doing the water testing at that time in that location. And I told him, I said, Look, I was the person. And he was...you know, the shock of him, and he was so appreciative that he finally met me.  

SALLY: How inspiring. Wow.  

TAI-RING: So that was something I wasn't planned to, I wasn't even thinking of. Yeah, that's how we touch people. At the least expected time. 

SALLY: That is a reward you would never anticipate when you're testing water in a place recovering from a devastating event, and then down the track to meet them in a whole other country, in a very different context, and to have that relayed back to you, that's pretty amazing stuff right there. Thank you so much. I'm so pleased you got to connect with that young person as well.  

TAI-RING: Yeah. I mean, I was really touched by that, and I hope that there will be more of that—that I can, that I be able to inspire for the next generation engineers. 

SALLY: Yeah, and show them what is possible, that it's what can happen beyond that study, and who knows where it will take them. So you've worked in some very challenging places, as we've mentioned. And I wanted to ask you when you put yourself out there and you see the devastation and the depth of the recovery that's ahead, how do you take care of yourself as well to keep going back again and again? How do you build your personal resilience? What advice can you share? 

TAI-RING: A lot of self disciplines and also understanding what you're there for. I mean, that is really a passion. I also have the honest to you, I didn't come up unscathed. I mean, I have burned out moments as well. One of it is really in Somaliland, which is part of Somalia, that I encountered really challenging people that I have to work with that I had a burn out. And I actually stopped being a humanitarian worker for about nearly a year-and-a-half to two, and went back to being an engineer, back to the old job. But then the draw of going back to humanitarian is still there, because this is what I like to do. [The key] is a lot of breaks, always looking at positive sides. What I did was that I stopped being a full-time employee, and I become a RedR deployee. That means a RedR roster member, where [roles are] on the short-to-longer-term basis. If I like the job over there, I'll stay longer. If I can't work well with the people, or that is a very toxic environment, basically, just say, Yep, I have this contract, you know, the end of the contract I get out, I'll look for somewhere else. I mean, there is a lot of challenges, especially personal challenges that anyone will face.  

SALLY: Yeah, you're moving to different countries where there's different cultural practices, different processes, and when you're working in surge like humanitarian context with RedR, you're expected to just jump in straight away. There's not a six-month warm-up period. You can balance it, knowing that, okay, it's going to be difficult for three months, and then we break—there's that kind of flexibility. Now we've already talked about how inspiring a mentor and trainer you have been able to be across your career as well. So we can see you're a strong mentor, which is so important in humanitarian and development work, particularly when it comes to sustainability of programs. So can you tell us a little bit about the need to mentor and train when you are in country? 

TAI-RING: I believe it's really important for any new professional to be able to point to one particular mentor that they can follow or work with. I was very lucky that I was selected in 2016 under the Global Mentor Initiative by the global WASH cluster and RedR UK, working together. I was selected as a global mentor. I have worked with about five young WASH professionals, with two of them until today still in very close contact. In a sense, I'm looking back into my very beginning of my humanitarian work, and I'm understanding a lot of people—especially young professionals who are joining in and starting to explore their way in the sector—that they're not quite sure whether they are doing the work correctly. Of course, the sector has improved a lot with the SPHERE standards. WASH is there. The mentorship is extremely important for new young professionals, because it is not how smart you are, it's more how you being able to take the advice or the guidance of the people who has more experience in the sector to guide you through all the maze—or a light to guide you in the dark, and saying, That way, that's the way you want to go—and follow me. 

SALLY: I think that's a really nice way to put it, because this is a collaborative sector. And there's never a first disaster. It's a continuation of events, and the more that we can learn from our experiences, the better the outcomes are. So, it's nice to hear that the value is there on both sides as well, and it does make us all stronger. 

TAI-RING: Yeah, absolutely, you're right on that spot. 

SALLY: So, what advice would you give to someone listening who might be interested in pursuing this kind of work?  

TAI-RING: I think I'll give you three advice. I say number one, what you're doing—I mean, for the humanitarian work—it really open up your mind to see more colour in your life. Different cultures, different people, different places where you can visit. If you wanted to see the world, this is how you should do it. The second advice is to be mindful that you need to be aware of your own safety and with the good discipline and always looking positively. The challenges may overwhelm you, but you have to be getting really good self discipline and awareness. The last advice, I was saying that, seek out a good mentor, a really good one that can help you through all your challenges with good advice and guidance, giving you a hand to pull you along in this particular sector. It's very rewarding. I think that's the three advice I'll give to anyone.  

SALLY: Well, it is three very good pieces of advice there, and it's been really lovely to get to know you a bit better and to talk about this experience. Thank you so much for your time today. It's been great to listen to what your journey has been, so we really appreciate your time talking to us on Humanitarian Conversations. We'll see you at EHP and HEAT training soon. 

TAI-RING: Yeah. Thank you. Bye.