S’porean duo find ‘heroes’ among migrant workers

SINGAPORE — They are often treated as a commodity or seen as a statistic, but the many faceless migrant workers here are very much part of the Singapore story, from domestic helpers who are caring for and raising a generation of Singaporean children, to construction workers helping to build the city’s skyscrapers.

In a bid to bridge the gap between Singaporeans and these migrant workers, Ms Kari Tamura Chua, 26, and Mr Calvin Tay, 29, are initiating a project called “SamaSama” to redefine the workers’ image — and over the Labour Day weekend, there will be a three-day event held at Mandai Westlite Dormitory, where members of the public are invited to mingle with some of these workers.

Mr Tay, a freelance designer, said: “Don’t see them as another worker, as another commodity in our economic growth. See them as somebody who contributes in another way to your life or the community.”

Participants at the event will get to know seven different migrant workers, or “heroes”, being profiled, as well as view photographs, videos and art pieces.

Ms Chua, a human resources management consultant, said: “We wanted to show these successful roles models to everyone, to let them know that these are capable people and they are as creative as we are.” The duo have always wanted to reach out to the migrant workers but never knew how — until December last year.

Ms Chua, who had worked on a compensation scheme for migrant workers previously, said: “We wanted to create some kind of difference. Calvin always gets emotional (when he sees the plight of others) on television… and migrant workers issues are something close to my heart as well.”

The two of them initially wanted to set up an art exhibition at a community centre to raise public awareness, but as they were working on it, they decided to create something “more meaningful” to change the public’s perceptions of these foreign workers. Instead of looking at them with just sympathy, what about seeing them as people who have done bigger things than us, Ms Chua said.

Working together with non-profit organisation HealthServe, they secured the exhibition’s location at the dormitory and also met more exemplary migrant workers in the process.

One of them is Ms Jeanilyn Bermudez, a domestic helper from the Philippines who, after saving up, opened her own business back in her hometown. She now hires 15 full-time employees at her junk-shop business. Ms Bermudez’s story is one of several published on SamaSama’s Facebook page in the lead-up to the May Day celebrations this weekend.

At the exhibition, the public will be able to walk through several different spaces, one of which will feature an art installation created by Mr Tay and some migrant workers.

The art pieces, made from melting together plastic tokens from a retro Singaporean childhood game called “kuti-kuti”, are meant to signify how Singaporeans and migrant workers can work together to form a stronger country, Ms Chua said.

Due to the limited space and for security reasons, only 250 visitors are allowed into the dormitory at a time. Facilitators will accompany visitors through the exhibition at allocated time-slots, and they may also be joined by the foreign workers themselves.

A tour of the dormitory will give a peek into the workers’ living space, and thereafter, the public are encouraged to mingle and chat with the workers at the exhibition because otherwise, it “will just be another exhibition if you are unable to create conversations out of it”, Ms Chua said.

Those who are interested in going to the event should register at http://samasama.eventbrite.sg.