By Joanna Korycinska $6,500 is the amount Hossain Jakir (above, right) paid upfront to secure a job in Singapore. It took him two and a half years to recover this 'investment' before he started earning anything he could send home. With the median wage in Singapore this year at $3,770, it is very difficult for
By Shona Loong It is a sunny Saturday morning, and I am having a coffee with Jamail—a 32-year old Bangladeshi migrant—in a kopitiam on Veerasamy Road. As we talk, I can sense the uncle at the next table sneaking glances at us. Surely this is a curious sight: there are other Singaporean women and Bangladeshi
When workers first approach TWC2 for help, an experienced volunteer would run through a checklist of questions with him. We do this because even though workers are quite able to describe the particular problem they need help with, they may not realise that there are other issues that require attention. For example, a worker who has
Continued from Part 1: By Rabin Kok I am happy for Ishaq. However, Nitai Chandra Sarker, my next interviewee, reminds me that many workers are far less lucky. Nitai does not sport a smile – only a blank, wistful look. Like Islam, he too paid 400,000 takas (about S$7,000) just to secure a job in
Rabin is a new volunteer doing his first interviews. At his first volunteering session, he was not expected to go for an in-depth story. Instead he was tasked to do quick interviews with a random pick of workers in order to gain a broad familiarity with the issues and the kind of broken English migrant
By Seema Punwani You must spend money to make money. Even Forbes magazine propagates this theory and it has probably inspired several entrepreneurs. A worker living across the Indian Ocean in Bangladesh who has limited formal education and sparse knowledge of English has in all probability not come across this famous quote. However for him this is
By Joanna Korycinska $6,500 is the amount Hossain Jahir paid upfront to secure a job in Singapore. It took him two and a half years to earn this amount back. Only then did his family begin to benefit from his working here. When he started on this job in March 2012, his pay was $16
On the evening of Thursday, 2 July 2015, Subbaiah Ramasivam flew home to Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, a very happy man. He was still slapping himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming it all. In his pocket were slightly over two thousand dollars, money that less than a week earlier, he thought he'd never see again.
As the organisation grows, having adequate space is always a challenge. In June 2015, an opportunity came up: the space above one of the restaurants where we serve our free meals under the Cuff Road Project became available. With rent at a very reasonable rate, TWC2 took it over for use as our Day Space.
By William Chin I was told that working in the marine industry is a lucrative segment, which pays higher than an average job. Economics 101 teaches that jobs that are dangerous would pay more than an average job to draw applicants. That is until one evening, when I meet the trio of Uddin Mohin, Md
