FOREIGN WORKERS
NTUC FairPrice Foundation’s $300,000 donation aimed at helping migrant workers
Leong Wee Keat
Picture: NTUC FairPrice managing director Seah Kian Peng (centre, left) giving lunch packets to foreign workers at a construction site in Rochester Park. Ernest Chua
AS A general worker at a construction site, Bangladeshi national Mohammad Rahman is envied by some of his peers: Instead of paying for his meals, which usually consist of cold rice and curry, the 25-year-old receives free warm lunches — with different dishes — each day.
More importantly, Mr Mohammad Rahman, who has been here for nine months, saves $90 on his meals — which is 12 per cent of his monthly salary of $750 — as they are provided free by the Archdiocesan Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People (ACMI).
More foreign workers could enjoy such perks soon because NTUC FairPrice Foundation yesterday donated $300,000 to ACMI to provide more aid for such workers.
The donation, which is its first aimed at helping foreign workers here, will go towards funding various ACMI activities, including the provision of food and shelter, befriending, training and legal aid.
“Migrant workers are an important part of our community. They have contributed a lot to our economic development and it is a group we want to look after as well, over and above our local workers,” said NTUC FairPrice managing director (group business) Seah Kian Peng.
About 15 per cent of the $300,000 contributed by the Foundation will go towards ACMI’s “soup kitchen” programme, currently run by more than 50 volunteers.
The soup kitchen prepares cooked meals and distributes them to mainly newly-arrived workers at their work sites on weekdays. Last year, more than 20,000 packs of food were distributed by ACMI.
Since its launch in March, last year, the FairPrice Foundation has contributed some $7.2 million to help the community. The Foundation, which is committed to contributing at least 20 per cent more this year, will be rolling out more projects to help workers — local and foreign — tide over the economic downturn, said Mr Seah.
From TODAY, News
Tuesday, 07-April-2009
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