Foreign worker volunteers clean up East Coast Park

Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia 28 Dec 14;

SINGAPORE: Over 300 foreign workers from the construction industry spent part of their rest day to help clean a 7-kilometre stretch of East Coast Park on Sunday morning (Dec 28). The initiative, which started at 8am, was organised by their employer GATES PCM Construction.

The company said the workers, who participated in the clean-up, did so voluntarily. They come from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines.

The initiative is part of the firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Last year, the company brought some of its workers to help out at an old age home. For its CSR initiative this year, it got every foreign worker on its payroll involved.

Its CEO M Krishna said: "Last year's effort was warmly welcomed, when we involved a fraction of our foreign employees. Therefore, I felt this year, I should give all my foreign employees an opportunity to give back to the country that has given them a better life."

Sivanessan s/o Kitnasamy, director of GATES PCM Construction, said: "A lot of them are quite veterans in terms of their work in Singapore...(as long as) about 12 to 14 years. So these guys have a little bit of sense of belonging to Singapore and this is one of the ways they can display that."

One employee, Kaleeswaran Vdaiyar, said: "I don't mind taking a half day (of my rest day to clean the East Coast Park), because I like Singapore, and I want to help clean the park. I like to do social service."

One park user was grateful for the clean-up. Katherine Ee said: "Feel thankful, feel very thankful. Since I know that they are doing on (a) volunteer basis, I think if I jog past them, I will appreciate it, say thank you..."


- CNA/ir