Unlike those who spent the recent year-end holidays at overseas resorts, Ms Isabel Phua and six friends opted to travel to Bangladesh to visit the villages where families of some migrant workers in Singapore reside.
For 10 days last month (December 2019), they travelled to different parts of the country and met the families of estate cleaners, construction workers and electricians who work in Singapore. They also spoke to former migrant workers who had returned home, people they had befriended here.
“The trip reminded me of the importance of keeping my fellow migrant brothers in prayer as they continue to work risky and dangerous jobs, and the need to advocate for increased safety by employers,” she said. There were 1.4 million foreigners working here as of June last year, according to data from Ministry of Manpower.
Ms Phua left her job in marketing at a social enterprise to start Migrant x Me last year in March, hoping to educate the public here about the migrant worker community.
The registered social enterprise conducts learning journeys for the public to show them places where migrant workers frequent, like the Farrer Road area, and where they may go for medical attention – a clinic in Little India run by a partner non-governmental organisation, SG Accident Help Centre.
Participants are encouraged to befriend migrant workers in their own estates or volunteer with smaller organisations helping migrant workers. So far, about 60 people have gone on to volunteer.
Migrant x Me is a culmination of Ms Phua’s efforts to befriend migrant workers over the years. It started in 2012, when she plucked up the courage to talk to a few foreign workers resting at the void deck of her block in Tampines.
Recalling the incident, Ms Phua said: “I always felt like I wanted to talk to them, but I was scared. So I brought along a group of young people from church – we gave them food and water, and talked to them.”
But it was two years later that she knew she had to get involved, after attending a workshop where she learnt about the difficulties that some migrant workers face.
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Source: The Straits Times, 6 Jan 2020