PUBLISHED ONBYYeo Shu HuiIn the lead up to Deepavali, some migrant workers in Singapore enjoyed free bus rides and care packs, thanks to the efforts of a local charity and members of the public.
ItsRainingRaincoats said in a Facebook post on Saturday (Nov 7) that they had organised free bus services for workers travelling from Jurong Island and Tuas to Little India on Nov 1.
"Within just one hour, our migrant brothers could get from their workplaces to Little India without having to wait for a bus to fill up, pay $4 per trip, or navigate multiple bus and MRT transfers," they wrote.
"With a direct bus to Little India and a return trip right to their dormitory doorstep, they could spend their day off relaxing with friends, running errands, or sending remittances.
"Some of our brothers even work on Sundays until 4pm. Thanks to our 6pm free bus service, they were still able to catch a ride to Little India for a quick break and settle their errands before heading back!"
The charity expressed their appreciation to Grifol Biopharma Asia-Pacific for supporting the initiative and thanked their volunteer Prabhu for making sure all the workers boarded the bus safely.
On Friday, the charity also said that they distributed Deepavali care packs to migrant workers.
While they had planned to delay the distribution of care packs due to some constraints, it all worked out in the end.
"The other day, we had two worksites on our Deepavali carepack distribution list, with 120 and 205 workers respectively. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go around. We were considering holding these two sites over for our post-event distributions at the end of the month," IRR wrote in a Facebook post.
"Then, just an hour later, Angel's Sweets Kitchen reached out to say they had a donation of 325 packets of sweets!
"The interesting thing? The shortage was something only our Deepavali drive planning team knew about. And here we were, receiving exactly 325 packets, just enough for both worksites!"
The charity thanked the home-based business, which specialises in vegetarian food and Punjabi snacks, for delivering the sweets to the workers.
"Sometimes the timing of these little acts of kindness really leaves us smiling."
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