The Covid-19 situation has hit businesses and everyone hard, and in particular, the migrant worker community in Singapore. In an effort to offer help, these ongoing campaigns don’t just raise funds, but also support our migrant worker friends in other ways — from streaming a song, to donating your smartphone and yes, even eating a “Kiasi Bao’.
For a list of organisations and initiatives that support migrant workers in Singapore, scroll to the bottom of the story.
The COVID-19 Migrant Support Coalition (CMSC) is a collaborative effort between several ground-up initiatives, and its most recent campaign is a donation drive for mobile phones.
Most of us can’t do without our smartphones, and migrant workers too rely heavily on them to keep in touch with family and friends back home. The phones should also be able to support apps like TraceTogether, SGWorkPass or FWMOMCare.
The campaign runs till Oct 10, with a target of 100 phones donated.
Other than listening to the singer’s soothing vocals and meaningful lyrics (which call for the celebration of diversity, and to create a kinder and more inclusive society), you’ll also get to lend a helping hand to the migrant workers in our community.
All proceeds earned this year from streaming the track on Spotify and the lyric video will be donated to two non-profit organisations that support migrant workers in Singapore: Transient Workers Count 2 (TWC2) and Itsrainingraincoats.
Listen to the song here:
You can now gift residents of the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (Home) Singapore’s shelter with a beautiful postcard to write home with. The organisation supports and empowers migrant workers, especially those whom have been abused and exploited. It also offers refuge and social support for domestic workers in Singapore.
Together with local advocacy group Maid For More and photography and postcard studio How Light Falls, the campaign sends the postcard set of your choice to Home’s shelter. All you have to do is enter “Gift Home” during checkout.
Each purchased set will be delivered to Home alongside the required stamps and postage fees. All profits from the postcard sales will also go towards How Light Falls’ partner NGOs: Home, Aware, and Centre for a Responsible Future.
An initiative by the Society of Interior Designers Singapore (SIDS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower, the campaign aims to raise funds for migrant workers who have been affected by the pandemic, through the sale of 10 T-shirt designs created by local designers.
Available at the SIDS website, there are only 100 pieces of each design, each priced at $38. The campaign proceeds will go to the Migrant Workers’ Assistance Fund, which is the humanitarian charity of the Migrant Workers’ Centre.
Contributors include Damian Tang, senior design director at National Parks Board, Andrew Loh and Kenny Lim, co-founders and designers at Depression, chef and artist Janice Wong, as well as Keat Ong, founder at Keat Ong Design and also President of SIDS.
Dim sum-loving folks can now chow down on mask-wearing buns at Yum Cha while spreading the love. It has launched the adorable ‘Kiasi Baos’, priced at $2.50 each, which are created to look like faces with masks, and are filled with low-sugar lotus paste.
All proceeds from the sales of the buns go to the Covid-19 Migrant Support Coalition’s (CMSC) efforts to provide migrant workers with basic essentials and resources.
Visit its website for more information.
You can also visit the various organisations’ website and social media platforms to keep up-to-date with their ongoing campaigns, volunteer or donate directly.
TWC2 (Transient Workers Count Too)
Facebook / Instagram / Website
ItsRainingRaincoats
Facebook/ Instagram
Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (Home)
Facebook/ Instagram/ Website
Maid For More
Facebook/ Instagram
Covid-19 Migrant Support Coalition (CMSC)
Instagram/ Facebook