While at work, Ms Yvonne Kong-Ho noticed that the cleaning staff in her office were putting in longer hours after her bosses stepped up sanitisation efforts.
The assistant director at a university, spoke to cleaners she came across and asked them how they were coping with their increased workloads. Many of them were elderly and told her not to worry about them.
Observing that many cleaners often worked with bare hands or thin gloves, she was concerned about calluses on their palms and exposure to chemicals in the disinfectants.
Ms Kong-Ho began handing out bottles of hand cream to these workers at her workplace, but later decided to assemble welfare packs with extra items to show them the appreciation she felt they deserved.
She received funding from SG Strong Fund by Majurity Trust on 28 February for her ground-up initiative. Together with family and two friends, she put together more than 300 welfare packs in her living room.
Inside each pack was a pair of latex household cleaning gloves, a bottle of store-bought hand cream, a packet of Salonpas pain-soothing patches, sachets of Milo chocolate drink and Nescafe instant coffee as well as a handwritten thank-you card. The cards were crafted by her two primary school children.
Ms Kong-Ho put out a call on Facebook asking her friends if they were keen to help her distribute the packs to cleaners at their workplaces or homes. Many agreed to do so, asking for five to 10 packs a time.
By Sunday, Ms Kong-Ho had given out 280 packs to friends, as well as organisations such as Touch Community Services and Lion Befrienders that would also distribute the packs.
Her friends said that the cleaners responded shyly when receiving the packs but were “happily surprised”.
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Source: TODAYOnline, 2 March 2020