CAPTain Spotlight 2 of 9: SGappreciatesFDWs

Article written by Mark Ngoh, Angelica Ang, Bryan Goh & Grace Cheong

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented upheaval to the world, and to Singapore, forcing the nation into a period of Circuit Breaker in efforts to curb the spread of the virus. Even as our economy and society reopen, it is evident that the pandemic has brought, and will continue to bring unique challenges to different communities in Singapore.

Although these times have been rife with uncertainty and unknowns for many of us, several CAPTains, both past and present, have gone above and beyond to play their part in making a difference — no matter how big or small — in our community. The Active Community Engagement (ACE) wing in CAPT has launched an initiative, CAPTain Spotlight, to share the stories of these CAPTains. Through this initiative, we curate and share the narratives of nine individuals/groups of CAPTains who have embodied the ACE spirit – actively engaging with the communities in their midst. This is the second of our ‘Spotlight’ stories.

CAPTain Spotlight 2: SGappreciatesFDWs

SGappreciatesFDWs was an initiative started by Ang Tian Tian (Year 3), Juliano Prastyo (Year 3,) and Risa Marielle (Year 3). The initiative seeks to promote the welfare of Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs), and to remind Singaporeans to be kinder to them.

During the Circuit Breaker period, there had been an increase in FDWs seeking psychological help from NGOs, having lost much of their social support network, being unable to meet their community and friends in Singapore and being unable to fly back to their home countries. After seeing reports of this on the news, Tian Tian was prompted to conduct further research to learn about the challenges faced by Singapore’s FDW community. Unlike non-domestic migrant workers, FDWs are unable to join trade unions, and due to the invisibility of domestic labour, it is harder for them to air grievances, and easier for them to be overworked. Furthermore, these challenges had been made more pertinent during the Circuit Breaker period. Moved and motivated, Tian Tian, Juliano and Risa kickstarted SGappreciatesFDWs to bring about greater awareness. To that aim, SGappreciatesFDWs produced a video, and also designed appreciation cards in different languages for employers to send to their employees, in hopes of reminding Singaporeans to treat FDWs with kindness, respect and fairness. Additionally, they have provided suggestions on activities which employers and FDWs could engage in together to encourage meaningful conversations between the two parties to provide FDWs with social support in these difficult times.

While they initially found it difficult to reach out to FDWs, as many were uncomfortable speaking candidly about negative experiences, the team reached out to their peers who had a strong and close relationship with their FDWs as a gateway to engage the wider FDW community. Language also proved to be another obstacle, one surmounted through friends that helped to translate the cards into Bahasa Indonesia, Burmese and Filipino.

Tian Tian, Juliano and Risa’s initiative showed the value of engagement. The conversation they sparked, both among Singaporeans and between Singaporeans and FDWs, brought with it increased awareness, and potentially leading to mindset changes. Hopefully, through encouraging individuals to see and treat FDWs as equals, SGappreciateFDWs can be but one important step towards sustained change.

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