ACE Tree-Planting @ Westlite Kranji Quick Build Dorms

In the past few years, our College has held joint activities with the residents of Westlite Dormitories – cricket games, concerts, co-volunteering at St Luke’s Hospital and more. When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived on Singapore’s shores, the lives of many migrant workers were affected. To provide our migrant brothers with a larger living space, “Quick Build Dormitories“ which allow for an area of 6 square metres per worker (excluding space for common activities) had been set up.

With the gradual resumption of activities in the latter half of the pandemic year, Westlite invited CAPTains to visit the Kranji Quick Built Dormitory (QBD). Members from the Migrants’ Sub-committee of CAPT’s Active Community Engagement (ACE) Wing made a recce visit to the dormitory in November. Westlite Dormitory’s management committee suggested that CAPTains plant trees around the QBD, in order to bring more nature and greenery to the residents of the dormitory.

On the 7 December 2020, 20 CAPTains and staff and six migrant workers took part in a tree planting activity at the Kranji QBD. Under the watchful guidance of the migrant workers, we planted 20 trees within the compound.

One of our CAPTains, Tan Sihui, penned a short reflection after the activity:

 “Tree planting is really some tough work. It’s physically demanding and we could not have done it better without the help of the workers! I really appreciate the effort and hardship that these workers go through every day and feel very privileged that they do so to plant the greeneries for us.”

In the beginning, CAPTains were a little hesitant as most of us had not planted a tree before. However, the warm and friendly demeanour of the workers quickly won us over. Balaji Seenivasagan, who actively took part in the tree-planting activity, reflected upon how the migrant workers kindly guided us along:

“They were really friendly with us… They worked so hard to improve our landscape and being able to learn from them today was a great experience”.

Another CAPTain, Kirti Joy Menon, shared her thoughts about the experience of working alongside our migrant brothers:

“It was really humbling to see how well they do their jobs and how committed they are to doing it well. Yesterday I could tell they really wanted us to plant every tree well so they were always ready to step in and patiently told us how to do every step properly even though they could have done it so much faster without us. They wanted us to do everything with excellence and I think that’s really the most amazing thing about them that struck me yesterday! Their commitment to excellence. Honestly, I’m just so heartened and grateful that they’re pouring this sort of excellence into building a nation that isn’t their own.”

CAPT would like to thank the Westlite staff team who invited and supported us in the planning and execution of this tree-planting activity. We are deeply heartened by the comments from Mr Terence Lee, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager at Westlite, who wrote,

“Westlite is very thankful that CAPT has volunteered to plant trees at the Westlite Kranji QBD. Our residents are going to be blessed by the shade and beauty of the trees, and over time, the presence of the trees can bring about overall heat reduction. We hope to have tree planting efforts in our QBDs in Tuas too.”

In the future, our College hopes to continue engaging in tree-planting activities, as not only do the planted trees spruce up the surrounding environment, these activities also enable and facilitate the growth and learning of CAPTains. We are immensely grateful towards the staff of the Westlite team for their warm invitation to CAPTains to plant trees in the QBDs, and for kindly sponsoring the purchase of the trees, soil and compost which were utilised during the tree-planting activity.