About
Doctor
Performer
Storyteller
Dr. Wai-Jia Tam is an award-winning humanitarian doctor turned performer.
She built a global health career consulting for UNICEF and the World Health Organization, serving across Asia and Africa through her non-profit Kitesong Global—raising over a million dollars for underserved communities. Her work was recognised by the Prime Minister’s Office in Singapore and Forbes Asia 30 Under 30.
Then she stepped off script.
After spine surgery, chronic pain and a season of personal unraveling forced her to rethink success, identity and survival, she began rebuilding her life through trauma recovery, storytelling and creative risk.
She moved with her husband and young daughters from Singapore to Tanzania.
What began as service reshaped her calling—and unexpectedly opened the door to performance and sold-out comedy shows internationally.
Today, her work dismantles silence, shame and performance culture. Drawing on lived experience and a trauma-informed lens, she brings a voice that is both disarming and unflinching.
Origins
The story began long before the stage.
At 18, I travelled alone to Nepal and lived with girls who had been abandoned and abused.
One day, we were suddenly evicted. I later learned it happened every year. Each time they rebuilt their lives, the ground disappeared beneath them again.
I was 18.
No credentials. No platform.
Just a question: What could I possibly do?
A quiet idea began to form—what if I could raise enough money to buy them a permanent home through a picture book I painted myself?
Everyone advised me to focus on medical school instead.
Build credentials first. Help later.
But something in me couldn’t wait.
The book was called Kitesong—a story about a little girl who loses and finds her kite.
It went on to raise over $100,000 and funded a permanent home for the girls.
What began as one illustrated book grew into Kitesong Global and Kitedreams, philanthropic initiatives that eventually raised over a million dollars for vulnerable communities across Asia and Africa.
Photos of nearly the same girls, seated in almost the same positions but ten years apart.
It was the beginning of a lifelong exploration of how risk, story, and courage can change our world.