YG – Finding Joy in the simplest things

Having a curious liking for wearing his glasses upside down – behind the nape of his neck – is just one of YG’s many quirks that make him such an endearing personality. Hailing from Taishan, Henan China, YG was previously employed in a wine-processing factory, located just 600m from his house, before coming […]

SC’s Story

Leaving behind his family, SC came over to Singapore hoping for a better lifestyle for his family. He heard of this prospect through employment agencies. He had hopes of opening a business in the future and lead a simple, happy life. Unfortunately, in September 2018, SC injured the nerve of his index finger […]

Hopeful Habibbullah, our Volunteer Translator

Joining us as a volunteer at Tai Seng Centre back in 2015, yesterday was Habibbullah’s first day volunteering as a translator in our Geylang Clinic. Since young, he realised that many of his relatives would consult his father whenever they encountered a problem. Inspired by his father’s helpful nature, he is motivated to […]

Leader of the Pack

Zhang Sheng Xian first heard of the opportunity to work in Singapore from Building & Construction Authority of Singapore when the organisation advertised in his hometown in Jiang Su (Nantong). Leaving behind his wife and now 26-year old son, he began his work stint in the construction sector in Singapore almost 20 years […]

Leaving with Many New Friends

JF hails from Yantai, a city in Shandong province. Leaving behind his parents, wife and two children, he came to Singapore to work in the wood industry in May 2017. In September 2018, he sawed part of his leg by accident during work. He fainted on the spot and was sent to the […]

Hardships in a Foreign Land

For those who had the opportunity to interact with Li Zhen An, I believe most of us would agree that speaking to him is tough because of his heavy accent. The words he uses are in different intonations from what we have learnt in school, making it difficult for us to understand him […]

A Sense of Familiarity and Warmness

“I hope more Singaporeans would take notice that migrant workers like us travel miles to make a livelihood and appreciate our contribution” Liu Yu Guang is a 45 year old migrant worker from Hebei, China.  Back home, he dropped out of primary school as it was too expensive for his family to pay […]

Positive Changes through a New Community

Many migrant workers base their decisions to work in Singapore on recruitment advertisements that they chance upon in their hometown in the form of physical posters. Unlike others, Ying Bin heard of the opportunity to work in Singapore from the radio. Deciding that he needs an improved livelihood to support his wife and […]

Getting Back Up on His Feet

Hossain is a 35 year-old migrant worker from Faridganj, Bangladesh. Before he came to Singapore, he worked in an insurance company for 12 years and studied until secondary school. He has an 8 year-old daughter and a 4 year-old son, and has been married to his wife for 9 years.  Hossain took a […]

Paying it Forward

JJ is a 40-year-old Chinese migrant worker from Taizhou, Jiangsu. He first came to Singapore in 2006 after his ex-boss in China ran away with money and has worked in three different construction jobs since. In July 2018, he was injured when metal shards entered his left eye. Because of his injury, his […]

Some Things are Taught, Most Things are Caught,

Ask any staff or intern at HealthServe, and they’d agree that it’s very hard to catch Jivee for an interview. Though he’s one of our Desker residents, he’s always out and about. So when I saw Jivee walk in gingerly, I was both surprised and worried. He looked like he was in pain […]

Migrant Feature

In light of the recent stories Jia Qi and I wrote, we wanted to work on something more light-hearted. These stories/captions focus on our migrant brothers’ everyday lives and deviate a little from the heavier topics we usually shed light on. In line with our objective, we designed pictures of 5 migrant workers […]

Home Away from Home

If I had to nominate somebody as testament to how many Bangladeshis live more exciting lives than Singaporeans, that somebody would be M. His stories -that are best left undisclosed- are sometimes so absurd that the only way I know to react is to laugh, and then feel bad for laughing. He tells me about […]

The Calm After the Storm

Y is a migrant worker in Singapore and also a university graduate who tried to start his own enterprise in the last year of his university back home. He came to Singapore at the age of 21 and in fact, he is more alike than different from us. It heightened my awareness that […]

Lost and Found

Our longest staying Chinese migrant worker, T, has finally gone home after staying in Singapore for the past 5 years. I was privileged to be part of his last few days in Singapore as he shared his story with me. T came to Singapore to work back in 2013. However, due to a […]