Dr Goh Wei Leong

After a series of humanitarian trips around the world, I started to look at Singapore, and pondered about matters such as our changing landscape, poverty and other social issues. One stark image that came to me was the living standards of our migrant workers, pitched against the backdrop of our country’s wealth and comfort. 

It dawned upon me one day, that while there is not much I can do to change their situations, offering affordable medical services and providing them with a basic standard of health care is a definite way of caring for migrant workers.

At the start, it wasn’t easy trying to raise funds amongst my friends and associates for this cause. It doesn’t help that we have a predominantly contractual relationship with our migrant workers. Many of us don’t see them as who they are — people with cultures and personalities that are richer than the monetary value they represented.

I would call it cultural naivete – not understanding the context to the workers’ situations and behaviours, resulting in a lack of acceptance and hospitality. But thanks to a few generous donors, HealthServe was established.

Our initial consultations with the workers uncovered a whole web of complex issues that ranged from debts to non-payment of wages, and even threats, exploitation and trafficking. Some of our migrant workers were living a life of non-dignity — being suppressed and treated unfairly without the social and emotional support that they deserve, being so far away from home.

The more we learned, the more we needed to provide. And the more we provided, the more we received — gifts of generosity that are worth far more to them than to us, and the gift of friendship, which is by far the most valuable.

There is a particular story of a migrant worker who was referred to us after he was found wandering the streets of Geylang. We discovered that he had a work injury that resulted in deafness and required a cochlear implant which costs $40k. We couldn’t afford it, but through a donation he received a high-end hearing aid, which helped him a great deal. In return, he started giving other migrant workers free haircuts as he was a barber by training. When he finally received his compensation, he decided to donate a portion of it to our cause, which I initially refused. But he was so insistent that I understood the lesson in it all — that to receive a gift from a migrant worker, is truly a gift of dignity which we have accorded them during their stay here.

Funding for our cause has always been one of the biggest issues, but we are thankful for all the generosity and support that have come our way since we started. We don’t take that for granted, nor expect to receive full government backing, but we are definitely appreciative of the little things like our recent tax-exempt status which really makes our fundraising a lot easier, and a matching amount from our government with every fundraiser.

I am extremely happy to have over 400 volunteers from all walks of life, working together towards the same cause: to see dignity fleshed out in the community we serve. It’s great to see the community rallying together — from the student to the billionaire, the businessman to the fellow migrant worker — caring for each other as a cohesive community.