Has it ever struck you that out of every five people in Singapore, one is a transient worker? Do you find yourself with free time, which you would like to use for helping others, especially those who build our apartments, clean our estates and tidy our homes?

Volunteers are at the heart of the work we do at TWC2. Our fantastic volunteers have helped make a tremendous difference in the lives of many of our transient workers.

You can get involved in many different ways, and each individual’s involvement is largely tailored to his or her time availability, interest and skill sets. Our volunteers are generally organised into teams, each led by a mentor. Teams have different missions and we try to fit volunteers into teams that best suit them. Below are explained the key teams we have at present:

1. Cuff Road Project team

This team is led by executive committee member Debbie Fordyce. It revolves around the free meal programme we operate in Little India. Volunteers register out-of-job workers for the programme and ask about the issues and problems each man is facing. They provide a friendly smile and some encouragement. If a worker has some difficult issues and need the assistance of a social worker or a qualified case helper, volunteers make the referral to ensure that the worker gets the help and advice he needs.

Language is not a big problem. Most workers at the soup kitchen can manage in simple English, or they will have a friend who can translate. Still, volunteers who can speak Tamil or Bengali will be particularly useful.

Also appreciated would be volunteers who have the time to accompany workers to their hospital appointments in the day. About two-thirds of the cases we see at the Cuff Road Project are injured workers. This also means that anyone with nursing skills would be particularly helpful.

Debbie and the senior volunteers at the Cuff Road Project will personally ensure that new volunteers are given the orientation they need to become effective.

2. Chinese workers outreach team

Led by social worker Kenneth Soh, this team focusses on workers from China. Team members help Kenneth do outreach work, typically on weekends, and some administrative work in the office (preparing the outreach materials, for example). Workers who are reached by the team are referred to Kenneth and Raymond, our other social worker, for detailed consultation and assistance. As team members get more experienced, they can also help provide some assistance, e.g. accompanying patients to hospital appointments or to the Ministry of Manpower.

Ability to speak Chinese is necessary.

3. Domestic workers support team

This team is led by executive committee member Shelley Thio, with the support of Kenneth Soh. Domestic workers in need of help usually reach TWC2 through the phone because they are often effectively trapped inside an abusive or exploitative household. Unlike volunteers in other teams, those focussing on domestic workers operate more on a “when needed” basis, because it is impossible to know in advance when cases arise.

Volunteers on “stand by” are needed for translation help (Indonesian, Burmese, Hindi), and occasionally we may need to organise a small team to rescue a worker once she has made up her mind to leave her employment – which is entirely within her right to do so. Unlike other workers, domestic workers in trouble often have the added difficulty of being long confined inside a home, and they don’t know how to find their way around Singapore. They are unable to make their way to help, so help must get to wherever they are. See for example the story in Midnight rescue.

4. Fundraising team

Led by TWC2 president Russell Heng, this team plans events that can help raise money for the organisation — a critical task. Much of the planning can be done via email, and volunteers in this team have the most flexible arrangements time-wise. They can help TWC2 from the comfort of their homes, coming to an occasional meeting to finalise details. At the present time, TWC2 is not ambitious about the scale of fundraising projects, so all events are small- to medium-sized and manageable even when one has no particular expertise in this area.

5. Digital communications and editorial team

The work of this team is centred on TWC2′s website and social media. The mission is to generate interesting content that helps the public become more understanding of migrant workers and more supportive of TWC2′s cause. From time to time, we may also run campaigns on particular themes. Led by TWC2 treasurer Alex Au, this team needs reporters/writers, photographers who can do photo-essays as well as cover events, and volunteers who can either individually or in a small group, run video projects.

At this time, there is a particular need for (a) writers who can interview and write in Chinese or who can translate existing content, and (b) volunteers with IT skills, particularly coding for WordPress platforms.

This team also includes a few volunteers who generate content by conducting bite-sized fact-finding projects. An example was one that inquired into the mental health pressures faced by workers left to languish penniless for months (see this story); a current project is looking into how much variation there is in the way employers and hospitals deal with injuries.

Volunteers who are available in the day are also needed to assist with the talks and presentations we often give. Many schools and colleges have approached TWC2 for help in their learning journeys.

6. Research team

TWC2 aims to do one or two medium- to large-scale research projects a year. Executive committee member John Gee is in charge of these. Volunteers participate in brainstorming areas worthy of research, designing the method, carrying out fieldwork and analysing the results, though the degree of involvement is something each volunteer can decide on to suit his or her time constraints. A recent project set out to fathom by means of a survey of Bangladeshi workers on their way home, how they had found their work experience in Singapore, and whether their stay was financially rewarding for them.

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The above is not exhaustive of possibilities. You can contribute in your own way, at your own pace. Although the above mentions skills that we may need, they are not a condition for volunteering. Even if all you have is a kind heart and empathy, those alone go a long way and are much appreciated by our beneficiaries.

To learn more about volunteering opportunities or to discuss how you would like to get involved with TWC2, please get in touch with us, preferably by email:

If emailing us for the first time, may we request that you put your name in the header, e.g. “Would like to volunteer – John Doe”. We request this because we sometimes get a series of emails with similar headers, e.g. “Volunteer”, which increases the risk that we get confused or your email gets lost.