Tag Archives: Volunteers
TWC2 activity: volunteering
The Cuff Road Project in 2018
TWC2’s Cuff Road Project (TCRP) serves the immediate needs of South Asian male migrant workers. Specifically, these are workers who are awaiting resolution of claims, complaints or investigations they’ve lodged with the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), and have no access to paid work from their employers due to injury or salary problems or other disputes Continue Reading »
Why we didn’t help one worker
While we try to help every foreign worker who comes to TWC2 with a problem, our volunteers are realistic enough to know that some workers are not blameless. In such a situation, we modulate the help that we extend. About a month ago, a guy — let’s call him Sham (not his real name) — Continue Reading »
Some days the skies are clear and problems float away
“Migrant workers volunteer to clean Pasir Ris beach on Saturday” said the headline in the Straits Times, 17 October 2018. Indeed, that’s what a large group of TWC2 clients did, led by Irene Ong and Marcel Bandur, joint leaders of our Discover Singapore team. This team organises activities for the workers under our care every Continue Reading »
To encash two cheques, Raju had to jump through hoops
For a long, long time, TWC2 has been calling for electronic payment of salaries to be made mandatory. Giving employers the option to pay in cash allows all sorts of abuses to happen and seriously disadvantages workers when salary is not paid or only partially paid. Workers are left with no evidence as to how Continue Reading »
Sweaty, busy night at our roadshow
Seven volunteers from TWC2 manned our stall at a migrant worker roadshow on Sunday, 18 December 2018. The humidity was high and everyone was sweaty, more so when workers crowded around our stand, but it was well worth it. We must have given out hundreds of fliers — maybe a thousand — all in their Continue Reading »
One million free meals served — a bittersweet moment for TWC2
Media release, 12 July 2018: 1,000,000 – that is the number of free meals served by local charity Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) since the inception of its free meals programme in 2008. Affectionately known as The Cuff Road Project (TCRP), the meal programme began when a group of TWC2 volunteers realised there were huge Continue Reading »
$55 a day and the bright side of things
By Philomène Franssen based on an interview in April 2018 It is quite an unusual story that I got to hear at TWC2’s Cuff Road Project food programme, one Monday evening. Indeed, as a volunteer member of the Communications team, when I sign up to interview one of the migrant workers that TWC2 assists, I Continue Reading »
Mithun’s first 20 minutes with TWC2
By Zhan Nanxin, from an evening in March 2018 Like many other first timers, Sheikh Mohammad Mithun comes to Transient Workers Count Too’s Dayspace in Little India unsure of what to expect, hoping for advice and help. What catches our eye is the large bag of medication in his left hand. That’s quite unusual. He Continue Reading »
How our volunteers put injured workers on the road to recovery
By Cheong Kwok Wy Enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organisation, the notion of basic healthcare is widely regarded as a fundamental right for every human being. By and large, Singapore does provide that right to every transient worker that comes here, such as through mandatory health insurance. Our Work Injury Compensation Act Continue Reading »
“Excuse me, can we talk to you a little bit?”
Photographs by Nguyen Phi Yen, from an evening in April 2018 Every weekday evening, volunteers with Transient Workers Count Too are there on the streets in front of our meal stations. It’s warm and humid, but we’re there because we want to make it easy for foreign workers to approach us if they need help. Continue Reading »