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Roy Ngerng
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Early life and family
Ngerng's father is a
chai tow kway seller while his mother is a retired factory worker.[7] Ngerng lives with them and his younger sister in a four-room Housing Development Board flat in Sembawang.[7]
Ngerng also has an elder sister.
Before 2000, the Ngerng family lived in a two-room flat near the now-defunct Hong Dao Primary School, which Ngerng had attended.[7] Ngerng's family were unaware of his blogging activities until the events of May 2014.[5]
Ngerng states that his interest in people and their interactions started in primary school when he witnessed instances of racism.[7] At the age of 15, Ngerng revealed his homosexuality to friends, but described facing resultant discrimination.[7]
He went on to study in
Serangoon Junior College, where he took art as an A-level subject and won an award for
topping his level in geography and art in his first year.[7]
Ngerng majored in sociology in the National University of Singapore, where he participated in its community service club helping autistic or hyperactive children and people with mental disorders.[7]
After graduation, Ngerng worked for six months with Autism Partnership, an organisation working with families with autistic children.[7] Ngerng then joined the Health Promotion Board’s Communicable Diseases department for six years, working on campaigns and presenting at international conferences, and winning an Employee of the Year award for innovation in 2011.[7] In 2012, he joined Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) as a contract patient coordinator, where he fronted a campaign to promoting the understanding of the lives of HIV-infected people.[7]
Ngerng is gay, as stated in his personal blog, My Right To Love, in 2011.[5] He has written on topics related to the LGBT community, such as relationship woes and AIDS.[5]