#SGUnited: How You Can Help Communities in Singapore Overcome Covid-19
Various communities in Singapore are in dire need of our help to overcome the Covid-19 crisis. You can do your part and respond to these community needs by donating money to different charities, donating essential items, volunteering your time, supporting local businesses and more.
If you have the privilege of donating or spare time on your hands, step forward and make your contribution in an effort to help each other get through this difficult time. If you are not in need of the Solidarity Payout of $600 by the government, I urge you to consider donating it. Let’s be generous with our philanthropic efforts and embody the spirit of #SGUnited. After all, we are stronger together.
Here’s how you can extend help and support.
Donate Money or Raise Funds
The pandemic underscores the already stark inequalities experienced by women in areas such as unemployment, housing, caregiving and domestic violence. This especially so for the following groups: single mothers, foreign domestic workers, foreign spouses, family violence victims, and workplace harassment victims. If you would like to help AWARE support these groups, please consider donating to their Vulnerable Women’s Fund.
Singapore’s Central Sikh Gurdwara Board is raising funds for their Langar Pick Up programme which distributes basic vegetarian food to low-income residents in the city’s emergency food response including the elderly, families and children.
Their Feed the City Programme provides households in need with a healthy food bundle each. Under this programme, donors will pay for the meals provided by F&B partners at special rates while volunteers will distribute the meals to a person in need/household. This is basically a win-win situation because we get to support F&B partners who are struggling now and at the same time provide proper and tasty meals to those in need. Online caterer Grain has already pledged to provide meals at a discounted rate.
You can also volunteer to distribute bento meals.
Giving.sg is a one-stop charity portal that has been set up so you can easily find and contribute to numerous charities’ efforts to address the needs of communities affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
HOME: Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics
HOME’s fundraiser is raising money to ensure migrant workers receive shelter, food, health and safety supplies, and medical care.
The termination of employment, unpaid wages, as well as inadequate access to healthcare and medical aid, are increasingly common threats faced by the migrant community. They want to help workers cope with the disruptions from the outbreak and to allocate resources to areas where it is needed most. Your donations mean HOME can continue to support migrant workers during their greatest hour of need and beyond.
Migrant x Me is a social enterprise that aims to build an inclusive Singapore through empowering youths for the migrant community. They work with MOM and MCCY to address issues faced by migrant workers, and over 600 unlisted factory-converted dormitories that need support. As part of the COVID Migrant Support Coalition, follow their Facebook page to see how your donations are helping the migrant workers.
The team continues to work on site to deliver critical services to the displaced and homeless to ensure that they are being well taken care of within their shelters. Show your care and support via https://www.newhopecs.org.sg/donation.
This page has been set up to raise funds for our migrant friends who are affected by the Circuit Breaker measures and directly deliver on three focus areas: Addressing immediate needs such as food and basic necessities; promoting meaningful occupational engagement for health and well-being; and consolidating resources for an online support hub.
The team has also created a learning platform “COVID Migrant Support Coalition” for migrant workers.
During this challenging period of Covid-19, some children are contacting Tinkle Friend to share their anxieties and worries. It is critical that a child-friendly dedicated helpline is in operation to serve the children during this uncertain time. t provides support, advice, and information to lonely and distressed children, especially in situations when their parents or caregivers are unavailable.
Formed by a group of migrants from different countries (Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar) for migrants. They are organising supplies for the dormitories including meals and necessities, as well as daily activities, classes and knowledge modules with migrants stuck indoors.
Singapore Migrant Friends is looking for volunteers to sort and pack from bulk orders of essential items at their warehouse. These items will be dispatched to migrant worker dormitories throughout the Circuit Breaker Period.
In a movement to improve sanitation and hygiene, this NGO collects, cleans and distributes gently used soaps to those in need. Support their campaign to help low-income families and migrant worker populations, who lack the resources to purchase necessities, such as soap, required to prevent infections.
Transient Workers Count Too is a non-profit organisation in Singapore dedicated to improving conditions for low-wage migrant workers. They are raising funds for the workers' daily meals and to help top-up their phone cards so they can stay in touch with their families during these trying times.
Singaporean comedian, Preeti Nair (Preetipls), has also started a campaign with UTOPIA collective for migrant workers where 100% of the proceeds go to HealthServe and TWC2. HealthServe will be using the funds to distribute 1500 health-care bags containing personal hygiene items such as hand sanitiser, antibacterial soap and masks to Special Pass holders, to continue running their Geylang Clinic, and provide tele-counselling and tele-consulting services.
Donate In-KinD
This hub serves to help connect those who need resources with those who can offer them, by listing initiatives to redistribute items, services, money and opportunities across Singapore.
Beyond Social Services is dedicated to helping children and youth from less privileged backgrounds, through guidance, care and resources. Their Covid-19 response funds will go to affected families such as parents who have lost their jobs or income reductions and single mothers who are working in essential services. The money will go into providing food rations, help families with expenses such as those struggling to pay rent and utility bills.
If you wish to make a donation-in-kind, you can also visit CityofGood.SG for the list of in-kind community needs you can contribute to. The National Volunteer Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) has created this platform to clearly list requested items such as food supplies, cleaning supplies, IT equipment, protective equipment and more. You can also fill up this form if what you would like to donate is not listed.
Contribute.sg welcomes you to donate new surgical or N95 masks and other sanitizing items that you do not need, which will be passed forward to frontline workers and other sectors of the society who are in need, such as homebound patients and lower-income families.
You can also donate food items such as rice, canned food and cooking oil to Food From The Heart which will create Community Food Packs and distribute them to low-income families and the elderly. Do this directly from their website or via Shopee’s "Lend A Hand, If You Can" campaign.
An initiative to spread kindness to migrant workers in Singapore. The team is collecting items to keep migrant workers occupy their time while in quarantine such as games, data top-up cards, food supplies and more. You can also volunteer to help pack and distribute care packages to the workers.
Mejulah Belnaja is a platform to support employers and dorm operators during this season to provide a morale booster for their workers in this difficult period. You can donate items to help workers learn new skills such as books, to pass time or just to relax such as games. They will match these donations to employers who may need them or procure them for you on your behalf.
Solidarity Fund donations to the Singapore Red Cross will go into feeding poor families; supporting befriending services for up to 100 high-risk isolated seniors with no kin for the duration of Covid-19; providing interim vouchers for daily-wage and part-time workers who have lost their jobs due to Covid-19, and more.
The Singapore Red Cross has also partnered with Project Chulia Street to distribute masks and hand sanitisers to migrant workers.
Volunteer
Assisi Hospice provides palliative care to patients with life-limiting illnesses, caring for them and their families. They are putting together a pen pal programme for volunteers to bring comfort and cheer to patients since their volunteers are currently unable to visit the patients. On some days, the staff are also delivering special hawker treats donated by volunteers. Support these masked heroes.
COVID-19 Tutoring Support for Students
Be a Covid-19 warrior and put your time and skills to good use. Amidst school closures, some kids are facing difficulties with home-based learning. Volunteer to provide free tutoring to support students in need at COVID-19 Tutoring Support for Students (CTSS) through online lessons.
CRA is sounding out a clarion call for healthcare workers to step forward to help curb the spread of Covid-19 amongst foreign workers in the dormitories in Singapore.
You can also volunteer to deliver food from food stalls, restaurants or kitchens to the smaller dormitories.
How else can you help the community during this time? Visit Masks Sewn With Love, a community-based project to sew reusable cloth masks for those in need.
The Silver Generation Office (SGO) is reaching out to seniors in need to support them during Covid-19. To help these seniors stay home and stay safe, SGO is calling for volunteers who can check in on their well-being regularly and help them to buy essential items. Download the SG Assist app to find out how you can volunteer to help seniors and vulnerable communities during this time such as going grocery shopping for them.
Willing Hearts continue to cook and deliver food to needy families. They urgently need volunteers to cook and pack food from 5.30am to 9.30am every day as well as 20 to 30 drivers with vehicles to assist in food deliveries to all their beneficiaries.
Support a Cause or Petition
Head to Change.org to support a cause you believe in by signing the petition and spreading the word.
With sales dipping, many tenanted businesses are finding it hard to cope with the increasing pressure on cost especially rental and labour. This petition is to the Singapore government to work with landlords to curb rental fees for businesses affected by Covid-19.
Support Local Businesses
The hospitality sector is facing its toughest challenge in recent history. While we can’t eat out, we can still support restaurants providing island-wide delivery, small F&B stores, meal providers, gourmet grocers and hawkers. If you are a hawker requiring delivery services or a delivery rider requiring work, check out Dabao Dash for listings.
Prioritise staying healthy and boosting your immunity during these times. You can support local personal trainers while staying fit.
Our local businesses have tons of fixed costs - rent, labour, loan repayments, insurance, supplies, repairs – the list goes on. Even successful restaurants have razor-thin margins and many are struggling to stay afloat. The closure of stores and increasing distancing measures keeping customers at home could tip the balance into bankruptcy. Visit ChopeAndSave to purchase a gift card from your favourite shop for you, your friends and loved ones to use at a later date. It’s basically a mini-loan, so buy one now and make a plan to use it later.
Tiger Beer has launched #SupportOurStreets, a regional initiative in Singapore to help the local F&B community such as coffee shops, food courts, bars, pubs and restaurants tide through the unprecedented challenges from the impact of COVID-19. All contributions will go directly to the F&B community.
Send Encouraging Words and Support
Send messages of love, support and appreciation for Singapore’s migrant worker community through this SG for FWs form. Your messages will be sent to the workers to uplift their spirits during this pandemic.
Hush TeaBar started a project to provide self-care packs for our healthcare frontliners. Visit Give.Asia to find out how you can support this initiative and benefit more frontliners.
Write a tribute to Singapore’s coronavirus fighters on the Straits Times tribute page.
Visit OurHeroesSG to share words of appreciation to the quiet heroes to encourage them as they sacrifice to serve others. Setup by the people from GoodHood, 20 heroes will receive tokens of appreciation every week.
Appreciate our frontline workers through the HealthcareHeroes project by TTSH, as they continue to fight COVID-19.
Help Your Neighbours
Visit Better.SG to find out how you can help Malaysian workers in Singapore in their difficult time. The lockdown forced them to choose between staying in Malaysia with their loved ones but being possibly unemployed, or crossing over to Singapore for the 2-week lockdown period without any housing or family support. Many of these Malaysian workers do jobs that are critical to the functioning of Singapore's society.
Help a neighbour today. GoodHood.SG is a ground-up initiative to connect people who live near one another to more easily give and receive help. Offer to help neighbours with items or services needed through the GoodHood.SG mobile app such as doing grocery runs for those under home-quarantine or offering items they may need and make a few new friends in your neighbourhood.
Global Charities, NGOs and Institutions
The global Covid-19 pandemic is having a compounding effect on some of the most vulnerable people in the world – the survivors of trafficking, slavery and abuse. Your support now will help ensure that Hagar can continue their work in transforming the lives of women and children who have survived slavery, trafficking and abuse.
World Health Organisation Solidarity Fund
The World Health Organization (WHO) is leading and coordinating the global effort, supporting countries to prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic. Donations received will go towards funding the activities of the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, which include ensuring patients get the care they need; buying and shipping essential supplies such as masks, gloves and protective wear for frontline workers; and accelerating efforts to develop vaccines, tests and treatments.