Migrant Matters, a volunteer group, organised their third official outreach to migrant workers by conducting a distribution of food, clothes and other basic necessities at Punggol Dormitory on 18 June 2017. Since early this month, the group began collecting donated items at six collection points around Singapore and has since collected thousands of items which will benefit almost 3,000 workers.
Pearlyn Tam, 27, co-founded this group with Brenda Eng, 29, in June last year after they found out that migrant workers had to share clothes. This inspired her to begin collecting unwanted or pre-loved clothing and necessities to provide for the migrant workers. One of the student volunteers, Sheri Teh, 23, said, “I think migrant workers are very much overlooked in Singapore and it’s very nice of Pearlyn to come up with this initiative so I want to do my part.”
As most of the migrants are fathers, Migrant Matters believed that it would be befitting to celebrate Father’s Day and Hari Raya together. A migrant worker Mukul Hossine, 26, from Bangladesh help out at Migrant Matters to distribute donated items to his co-workers.
“In Singapore, things are very expensive and most of us are very poor. Hari Raya is special for Muslim migrant workers but many cannot afford to buy new clothes,” he said.
Read more here.
Source: The Straits Times, 19 June 2017