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Improving Singapore’s foreign domestic worker landscape through CDE’s “Hearts from the Heart” campaign and new shelter launch
Since the inception of the Centre for Domestic Workers (CDE) in January 2016, CDE has been actively promoting healthy employer-employee relationship to help improve the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) landscape in Singapore. CDE believes that by strengthening employer-employee relationship, many conflicts can be tackled upstream and resolved amicably. In line with its advocacy efforts, CDE has conducted numerous campaigns, like the Thank You Campaign in May this year, to encourage employers and other key stakeholders to appreciate our FDWs.
“Hearts from the Heart” Campaign
Similarly, to celebrate International Migrants Day (IMD), CDE launched a month-long campaign to invite employers and other key stakeholders to show their appreciation to our FDWs. As FDWs play an important care-taking role in many families, a healthy employer-employee relationship is crucial to enable our employers to go to work with a peace of mind.
Titled “Hearts from the Heart”, the campaign aims to rally employers and their families, employment agencies and the larger community to demonstrate their heartfelt appreciation through the giving of 3D folded hearts to our FDWs. CDE hopes to encourage all, especially employers, to take the first step in appreciating FDWs for their hard work through this simple act.
Taking a multi-stakeholder approach, CDE has been engaging partners like the Foreign Domestic Worker Association for Skills Training (FAST), AIDHA, Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore) [AEAS], schools and tertiary institutions like ITE Central, Nanyang Polytechnic and National Junior College, as well as youth groups like the Labour Movement’s nEbO, to extend the outreach of the campaign and inculcate a sense of gratitude in our young for the work that our FDWs do.
CDE aims to distribute 10,000 pamphlets containing the origami material for the 3D folded hearts to the public by IMD this Sunday. The folded hearts will then be packaged with candies and gifted to the FDWs the end of December.
Mr Shamsul Kamar, Executive Director (Strategy) of CDE said, “Through Hearts from the Heart, we want to invite our different stakeholders, especially our employers, to take time out to appreciate domestic employees for their hard work. This simple act can be a stepping stone for employers to engage their domestic employees, and lay the ground for the growth of a healthy employer-employee relationship.”
Interested participants who wish to show their appreciation for our FDWs can visit the following locations to collect the pamphlet for the 3D folded heart:
• Centre for Domestic Employees
Address: 185A Thomson Road, Goldhill Centre (Level 2), Singapore 307629
Operating Hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 6pm
• Association of Employment Agencies (Singapore)
Address: Blk 9 Jalan Kukoh #03-77 Singapore 160009
Operating Hours: Mondays to Fridays, 10am to 4pm
Please visit CDE’s website or Facebook page for regular updates on the campaign.
Other Efforts to Promote Healthy Employer-Employee Relation
As FDWs work in a domestic setting, the sudden proximity to their employers and their families might be challenging to manage, especially at the start. Likewise, employers and their families too need time to warm up to and accept the FDW into the family. Therefore, to encourage mutual understanding, CDE emphasises on the importance of communication – not only in terms of work but also to build rapport and strengthen the bond between the employer and the FDW.
For a start, CDE will be launching a series of Handy Guides for both the employers and the FDWs. Available in English as well as the FDWs’ vernaculars, the Handy Guides will educate both parties on some of the common misconceptions that might be taken for granted. For example, while Singaporeans usually have kaya or butter toast for breakfast, FDWs from Myanmar actually prefer rice or porridge as their first meal. It is also taken for granted that FDWs can operate simple household appliances like an electric kettle or a rice cooker. However, as some of them come from the villages, they might not know how to do so.
The Handy Guides series will educate employers on some basic cultural differences, provide common phrases in English with translations in the vernacular to aid FDWs in communication with their employers, educate them on their rights and responsibilities and provide a set of questions to enable both parties to better understand each other. The Handy Guides will aid in managing and adjusting expectations they may have of each other. One example of a healthy employer-employee relationship is that of Miss Elizabeth Justine’s relationship with her FDW, Miss Mary Agnes Anthoni, who has been working for her for 18 years. Believing that one must treat others like how they want to be treated, Miss Justine, 60, treats her FDW like family. Yearly, she has given Miss Anthoni, 45, salary increments, enabling her to save enough money to pay her debt and build a 7-room house in Sri Lanka for her family. Despite having a big house back home, Miss Anthoni wants to stay in Singapore to work for Miss Justine until she is unable to do so.
While the close bond between Miss Justine and Anthoni is admirable, it also showcases that a healthy employer-employee relationship is possible. This reinforces CDE’s advocacy for building a healthy employer-employee relationship to stem conflicts at the upstream.
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