How To Help Singapore's Migrant Workers

Want to know how to help Singapore’s migrant workers through the COVID-19 crisis?

- Melinda Murphy

Here we meet Dipa Swaminathan, the Singaporean woman behind one organisation that’s been supporting migrant workers for years – even more so now in this crisis – and we learn what we can do to pitch in too. There will be a lot to be done even after the Circuit Breaker period is over, as nearly one in five people living in Singapore is a migrant worker, and more than 300,000 of them are living in dorms.

Tell us about the organisation you founded.

It's Raining Raincoats started in 2015. I was doing bits here and there on my own to support the migrant workers. A Facebook post in a now-defunct group went a bit viral and the Singaporean Kindness Movement encouraged me to create an official organisation to support migrant workers.

At the time, my suggestion was to carry around disposable raincoats and give them to migrant workers as they’re often caught in the rain without one. When the government asked me for a name, I came up with It’s Raining Raincoats. Now, we do a lot more than just raincoats.

What’s the mission of the organisation?

It’s a simple mission: support migrant workers. We try to do whatever it takes to do that, short of legal representation. No worker who comes to us in need goes away without help. We’ve been successful because we’ve come up with fairly simple, innovative and imaginative ways residents can reach out to migrant workers in need.