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 various native languages.
The biggest demand was for Bengali and Tamil fliers. Surprisingly, we didn’t see any Chinese or Burmese workers — but maybe that was because the event was linked to a cricket tournament, and these nationalities don’t follow cricket.
Three of our volunteers could speak Bengali, and Bangladeshi workers were happy to engage with us for longer than they might otherwise.
Our fliers gave advice on how to calculate their salaries correctly (including overtime and holiday pay), and what to do if they face an injury or salary problem.
Organised by the police at Tuas Road South Recreation Centre, TWC2 was one of nine agencies invited to set up booths. Among the others were the National Environment Agency, Ministry of Manpower and fellow NGO Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics.
Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Zaqy Mohamad was the Guest of Honour, and he stopped by our stand for a chat.
The picture above is of the main stage. We were not part of that, but were located at the opposite end of the sports hall — even so the music was so loud at our end, it must have been unbearable for the stalls located nearer the stage! Nonetheless it was a very successful outreach. Pictures of our stall, volunteers and workers visiting us are below:
