SINGAPORE, April 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) —The increased spotlight on the plight of foreign workers and their vulnerability in the Covid-19 crisis has led to an outpouring of donations from Singaporeans despite economic hard times caused by the coronavirus.
Several fundraising campaigns have smashed their targets within 24 hours, raising a total of S$345,000 in just a few days.
Ethan Guo, the general manager of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), set up a fundraiser on the night of April 5 when it was reported that the Covid-19 situation was beginning to affect a large number of foreign workers in dormitories. He started receiving messages from people asking what they could do to help.
The fundraiser, which was initially set at a target of S$20,000, is aimed at gathering donations to top-up foreign workers’ prepaid SIM cards.
“I was not expecting we would even hit S$20,000. I was very surprised when I saw that we were already a quarter way there by lunchtime. By the next morning, we had already surpassed the target,” said Guo, whose organisation promotes equitable treatment for foreign workers in Singapore.
His target has been raised to S$120,000 and over S$116,000 has been collected as of 5pm on Thursday.
Guo decided to raise funds to top-up SIM cards after receiving feedback from workers who said that they are in need of these cards to let them keep in touch with family back home.
“Most of the foreign workers are now stuck in dormitories with limited or no WiFi access. They also have no means or money to top up their cards to make basic phone calls or to buy data during such a critical time,” he said.
The number of Covid-19 cases in foreign worker dormitories has escalated quickly in the last few days with more than 20,000 workers currently quarantined in three dormitories after clusters of the infections were found.
