A group of residents from Bukit Timah welcomed 1,030 foreign workers into their neighbourhood on 20 May with care packs that included food and personal care items such as bar soaps and mosquito coils.
The workers have moved temporarily to the former Ngee Ann Polytechnic staff apartments in 90, 92 and 94 Kismis Avenue. They are in essential services, and have been given the all-clear from coronavirus.
The Migrant Workers’ Centre (MWC) welfare group provided 320 bowls of cup noodles and 1,100 packets of puff rice for the care packs. Non-profit group Project Chulia Street contributed food and 250 prayer mats, while ground-up movement SG Makers Against COVID-19 donated 1,100 “ear savers” – extensions that help reduce pain around the ears due to mask straps.
Through social media and their website BTCares.sg, the resident volunteers raised more than $27,000 in cash and in-kind donations, under MWC’s Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund.
The cash was used to buy items that were not donated in-kind and the various items were then packed by the volunteers in their own homes.
These resident volunteers from the Toh Yi public housing estate and Eng Kong-Cheng Soon private housing estate – both in the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC – got together after finding out about the workers’ temporary move into their neighbourhood.
They formed the Bukit Timah Foreign Workers Liaison Committee in April with the help of Ms Sim Ann, their MP and grassroots adviser for the Bukit Timah ward, and grassroots volunteers.
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Source: The Straits Times, 1 June 2020