Pre-schoolers say ‘thank you’ to thousands of foreign domestic helpers

SINGAPORE — Four-year-old Charlotte Mok and her Indonesian helper Misiyatun share a special bond.

“Once, when Misi did something wrong and was chided, Charlotte stood in front of (her) protectively and said ‘don’t bully auntie!’”, recounted Charlotte’s mother, Mrs Ivy Mok, a 36-year-old designer.

Charlotte has also become a fan of Ms Misiyatun’s dishes, including her signature soto ayam (chicken soup).

“Sometimes, when we eat at food courts outside, Charlotte would say that the food is not as nice as auntie’s,” added Mrs Mok.

To help pre-schoolers better express their gratitude, and develop empathy and respect for the work that their domestic helpers do, the Centre for Domestic Employees (CDE) partnered the NTUC First Campus’ My First Skool centres across Singapore.

This involved a just-concluded month-long campaign where students penned thank-you notes, staged performances and made simple snacks for their helpers.

Since the start of the campaign on April 29, some 11,000 pre-schoolers across 142 My First Skool centres have written messages of appreciation and made handicrafts to form a “tree of gratitude”.

They also staged performances for their helpers, who were invited to watch the performances in the pre-schools.

At some My First Skool centres, children who did not have domestic helpers instead penned and handed out thank-you cards for cleaners and construction workers working in the vicinity of the pre-school, said Ms Thian Ai Ling, general manager of My First Skool.

My First Skool’s Sembawang centre was the first to embark on such activities, where pre-schoolers there wrote cards for their helpers back in 2016.

SHOWING APPRECIATION TO FOREIGN DOMESTIC WORKERS

The month-long campaign this year also involved parents of the pre-schoolers. The CDE also said it hopes to reach out to family members and the wider community to spread the message of appreciating foreign domestic helpers.

On Friday, Mrs Mok and her software engineer husband, Mr Dareen Mok also joined Charlotte to design handwritten cards to thank Ms Misiyatun for her hard work and contributions to the family.

“I felt very happy when I received the cards, I treat (Charlotte) just like my daughter,” said Ms Misiyatun, 39, who has been working for the family for four years.

Another pre-schooler, six-year-old Sheena Pang, also wrote a note in which she thanked her helper for “waking up at 5am every day” and “working so hard”.

Sheena’s Filipina helper, Ms Binarao Quimada, said she was heartened to receive thank-you cards from Sheena and her family.

Throughout her six years of working for the family, Ms Quimada had grown so close to Sheena that she had even extended her contract, so that she could see Sheena enter primary school. “I wanted to see her grow up and go to primary school,” she said.

Ms Thian said that “through acts like creating handicraft to build the ‘trees of gratitude’, putting on performances and making simple snacks to express their appreciation for the domestic employees, we are nurturing our children to develop empathy and show care and concern for others’’.

“(The exercise) was also about educating and giving children the vocabulary to express gratitude and teaching them how to address their helpers in a respectful way,” she added.