We hope this will be a useful resource for those of you working far from home, to better understand what stress is and how you can cope with it! Click here to read more about signs of stress! In today’s fast-paced world, chronic stress is common, but your mind and body can pay a high price.
Learn to recognize overwhelming stress—and what you can do about it. What is stress? Stress is your body’s way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you sense danger—whether it’s real or imagined—the body’s defenses kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” reaction or the “stress response.” The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. Stress can also help you rise to meet challenges. If you frequently find yourself feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, it’s time to take action to bring your nervous system back into balance. Fight-or-flight response: what happens in the body When you feel threatened, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol, which rouse the body for emergency action. The effects of chronic stress. Money Concerns. Family Concerns. Loneliness. Health Concerns. Workplace Safety.
More workers in distress helped by Migrant Workers' Centre this year, Manpower News. SINGAPORE - More foreign workers received help this year from the Migrant Workers' Centre (MWC), with more than $500,000 in financial assistance given out.
This is more than double the figure given out from the Migrant Workers' Assistance Fund last year, and goes towards meals or ex gratia payments for workers who cannot fully recover their salary claims, for instance. So far this year, the organisation has housed more than 530 workers - also double last year's number - and provided more than 87,000 meals. MWC chairman Yeo Guat Kwang said on Sunday (Dec 16) that the higher numbers are because the centre started handling cases referred by the Tripartite Alliance for Dispute Management (TADM) since August last year. Getting to root cause of maids' money woes, Letters in Print News. To complement recent measures put in place to curb moneylending to foreigners, we note that the Ministry of Manpower has released a video and brochure educating migrant domestic workers (MDWs) on money management.
We welcome measures that go towards solving the problem of overborrowing and which advocate financial prudence among MDWs. At the same time, we must also be aware of other issues that drive MDWs to borrow from licensed or even unlicensed moneylenders. They sometimes face pressure to send money home to assist with their families' finances, or with sudden emergencies relating to education, health or reconstruction of their houses in times of natural disasters. Raising awareness of mental health of migrant, domestic workers, Life & Culture. Singapore WHEN Ava* arrived in Singapore about 14 years ago, she cried every night for four months as she missed her parents and children.
"I was homesick and I kept most personal problems to myself," she said. "Until now, I still miss home and cry sometimes. " Siva* and Muthu*, who have been here for five years, are currently unemployed. Muthu said: "We have no money for food, transport and medical. Stay updated with BT newsletters. 'My heart cries': Muslim migrant workers ache for family, but find support from bosses this Ramadan. SINGAPORE: When Kadir Mohammad Abdul first arrived in Singapore seven years ago, he spent his nights crying.
Then 26, the young father would call his family in Bangladesh in the evening, but make no mention of his misery to his parents, wife or children. Though once the calls ended, tears flowed. “Why did I come to Singapore?” Was the question he repeatedly asked himself. Like the thousands of migrant labourers who come to Singapore each year, life as a construction worker in the city state was not what he had expected it to be.
Before he left home, friends and relatives who had worked in Singapore told of a dream city where the roads were clean, people were friendly, and everyone followed the law. Above all, they spoke of a better life with better-paying jobs. Although all of those things turned out to be somewhat true, it was what they had failed to bring up that was Kadir’s grievance. “Singapore really is a dream country. “That’s why we are not feeling the dream.” “Now I have money. Singapore migrant worker's poem speaks of heartache and struggle, Singapore News. Toiling for long hours for meagre salaries and living in crowded dormitories, migrant construction workers have helped build modern-day Singapore, but remain all but invisible to many in the affluent city state.
Now, an award-winning book by a Bangladeshi man is shining a rare light on the lives of labourers who have come in their thousands from poorer parts of Asia in search of a better future. MD Sharif Uddin's collection of diary entries and poems, Stranger to Myself, describes the ups and downs of his years in Singapore, from high hopes on his arrival to frustration and heartache at missing his family. Migrant workers ease loneliness with dumpling party over Chinese New Year, Singapore News. Chinese migrant worker Wang Yong spent the first day of Chinese New Year alone in his dormitory room in Taman Jurong.
Though the 42-year-old had several invitations from friends who welcomed him to visit their homes, he was homesick and preferred to spend most of the day video-calling his family back in Jilin, north-east China. Every year, his family there celebrates the new year by making and eating jiaozi (dumplings), setting off firecrackers and catching the annual Spring Festival Gala show on television.
"My family usually eats dumplings on the eve, first day and second day of the new year," said Mr Wang Yong, who is a metal worker in a manufacturing firm. Yesterday, he and 150 other Chinese migrant workers gathered to eat dumplings together and celebrate the Chinese New Year. MPs call for better treatment of injured migrant workers as amended work injury law passed.
SINGAPORE: Members of Parliament (MP) have urged employers of migrant workers who sustain injuries while on the job to promptly pay for their medical treatment, and provide proper food and accommodation during the compensation process.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) should also notify these workers when employers file an accident report, the MPs said, adding that the ministry should increase outreach efforts to ensure the workers are aware of their rights and changes to the law. The call came as Parliament on Tuesday (Sep 3) passed the amended Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA), which protects more workers, and allows for faster and simpler work injury claims.
READ: Broader insurance coverage, higher compensation among proposed changes to work injury law. Keeping Singapore’s Migrant Workers Safe. Foreign workers ‘served unappetising, stale food’ SINGAPORE — Foul-smelling curry, rock-solid fish with scales still intact, and roti prata so hard that it feels like one is “chewing on plastic” — these are how some foreign workers describe the food catered for them at work sites.
The situation is made worse by the fact that the meals are often delivered several hours before meal times. Construction supervisor Zakir Hossain Khokan told TODAY: “If you come by construction sites or shipyards early in the morning, you will see how packs of food are left along the roadside. By the time workers have their meals, often the plastic bags would have been broken (by cockroaches or rats).
The food is so smelly it has obviously gone bad.” Stressed, isolated: Migrants face increased mental health risks amid coronavirus crisis. Talk to others about your problems. Find a community to belong. Don't be afraid to call a helpline. Know your rights. 'I was on the brink of death': The desperation of migrant workers. “I only remember waking up in the hospital,” says Shourav*, sitting on a camp bed.
“I fell from a three-flight scaffolding. My backbone was damaged and I now am hooked up to an IV. I still don’t exactly know what happened to me. I believe they left me on the floor for hours.” Shourav, from Bangladesh, has been working construction in Singapore for a few years. The Singapore Tourism Board pushes a certain image of the city-state: luxury lifestyles and world-class attractions and food. These workers are concentrated in industrial sectors such as construction, shipbuilding and repair, as well as care-giving and household work, where they make up almost the entire labour force.
“Most of the these people are well-educated. Claims can be based on a disagreement over an injury compensation or salary, and claimants are not permitted to work during an open dispute. Safeguarding foreign workers in Singapore. In April 2019, two construction firm directors were fined for housing foreign workers in an overcrowded illegal dormitory in Singapore. 17 rooms with 116 bed spaces were discovered in the premises, which meant that each occupant had roughly 2.57 square metres of space for themselves.
The firm saved an estimated S$27,230 to S$84,980, but at the expense of the well-being of the workers who had to live in these appalling conditions. Sadly, this is not the first time such an incident has occurred and is unlikely to be the last. There are approximately 534,300 construction workers and Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) in Singapore, making up almost 10% of the population. Yet they are amongst the most marginalised groups in society and tend to be treated badly. Life As A Migrant Worker In Singapore. Migrant workers 'exploited' in Japan - BBC News. Migrant workers under great mental stress: Poll, Singapore News. More than half of the lower-skilled South Asian migrant workers here waiting for salary or injury claims are likely to be suffering from serious psychological distress.
This is according to a Singapore Management University (SMU) survey released yesterday. The survey of 605 workers, mostly from Bangladesh and India, found that more than 60 per cent of respondents who had outstanding injury or salary claims were predicted to have serious mental illness. This is more than four times the prevalence among workers with no claims. The study listed threats of repatriation by employers, debts owed to agents, and a lack of housing for runaway workers as the main causes of the stress. SMU Assistant Professor Nicholas Harrigan, who co-authored the study with former SMU student Koh Chiu Yee, said that the precarious nature of work for migrant workers here can affect their well-being. This comes up to around 13,700. Social impact e-commerce firm helps migrant workers take control of their money.
SINGAPORE — BeamAndGo, a social impact e-commerce start-up, has helped thousands of Fillipino domestic workers in Singapore — and elsewhere — gain more control over the remittances they send back to relatives at home since its launch in 2015. Now the firm is looking at expanding to other South-east Asian markets including Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam — and could do so as soon as 2022.
Many foreign domestic workers in Singapore are from Indonesia. The Filipino foreign domestic workers who use the service can buy SMS codes through the website and send money back home in the form of vouchers, which can be used by their relatives to redeem groceries, medicine and gas, among other necessities. The website also has pre-packed packages with groceries, such as rice and canned food, that users can choose to have delivered to their families.
S’pore volunteers thank 5,000 foreign workers with huge potluck, clothes & haircuts – Mothership.SG – News from Singapore, Asia and around the world. Leaving their family and home behind to toil for a better future, foreign workers lead a tough life. And it doesn’t hurt to go out of your way to show your appreciation for these unseen workers. And one such appreciation event that occurred recently is likely to warm your heart. A very big potluck. Gen Y Speaks: I was fearful of migrant workers, now I speak out for them. Migrant workers are an important part of the Singapore labour force. In 2018, our population comprised of almost one million unskilled and semi-skilled foreign workers — a sizeable portion of our 5.6 million-strong population. Unfortunately, prejudices among Singaporeans towards migrant workers — many of whom hail from developing countries like China, India and Bangladesh — still run deep.
I was exposed to this prejudice from a young age, when my elders would warn me that if I was naughty, they’d get foreign workers to come and catch me. As a result, I learnt to fear them and perceive them as dangerous. HOME. Welcome to MWC Portal. Home-Page. TWC2 – TWC2 promotes equitable treatment for migrant workers in Singapore. A guide for foreign workers english malay. Get it right work it right english. Employment laws in place to protect foreign worker. Singapore laws take care of our foreign workers, or do they? – TWC2. Saiful shows us the wrist which has a steel implant By Tan Yen Seow, based on an interview in November 2017 Islam Saiful, 32, is my first interviewee at TWC2. He is a Bangladeshi national who has been working in Singapore on a Work Permit for the past ten years. Judging from his jovial demeanour, one will not be able to guess his plight. Saiful suffered a workplace accident about three months ago. How are local and foreign workers’ rights protected?, Singapore News.