Leaena Tambyah

Leaena Tambyah (born Leaena Chelliah; 28 June 1937 – 8 September 2023) , was a Singaporean special education advocate who founded the country's first school for children with multiple disabilities. The school was originally called the Handicapped Children's Playgroup, but went on to become the AWWA School. Tambyah also founded a programme called TEACH ME (Therapy and Educational Assistance for Children in Mainstream Education) to try to bring disabled children into mainstream schools, and to provide mobile therapy services to children whose families could not afford to bring them to a hospital.

Early life and education Leaena Chelliah was born in Penang, Malaya on 28 June 1937 to The Venerable Reverend Dr. Devasahayam David Chelliah and his wife Rosalind. She was the youngest of the six children. She and her family moved from Penang to Singapore in 1940, when her father was appointed headmaster of Saint Andrew's School. She attended Raffles Girls' School, then Raffles Institution, before moving to England to earn her bachelor's degree in social science at the University of Birmingham. This was the first school for multiply-disabled children in Singapore.

Death Tambyah was diagnosed with a blood disorder in March 2023. She later suffered a stroke in September 2023 and her two children Paul and Malini put her into palliative care. She died a week later, on 8 September 2023, at the age of 86.

Tambyah was cremated at the Mandai Crematorium and Columbarium Complex and her ashes was scattered off the coast, at Changi, where she and her late husband once dated as teenagers.

Notable works Three Special Friends with Kathleen Chia - 2000 D D Chelliah: Man of Faith, Master Teacher - 2007