For seven days a week, Bridget Lew arrives promptly at the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (H.O.M.E.) at ten am every morning. There, for the whole day, she is kept busy overseeing her brainchild, H.O.M.E., as the organisation’s president.

Her responsibilities include management, balancing finances and handling discipline problems as well as duties down to the smaller tasks such as ensuring that everyone has enough food, manning one of the help-desks, and even buy groceries.

The day does not end until twelve hours later, when she returns home only to continue with work that can be done from her second home – where she lives but spends less time in – such as to clear H.O.M.E. emails on her handy Blackberry.

This is a typical day in the life of Bridget, founder and president of H.O.M.E., for the six years since she begun the non-profit organisation.

It all started in 2004 when she became acquainted with issues concerning the marginalisation of migrant workers in Singapore through a Fillipino priest. He was looking for volunteers who were willing to aid mistreated Filipino migrant workers in Singapore, where the welfare of domestic workers is largely determined by employers and governed by few laws.

For example, domestic workers in Singapore are not included under the Employment Act, which regulates working hours and conditions, due to the nature of their work in a home environment. For them, weekly day offs are not mandatory although employers are encouraged to grant their domestic worker rest days. Otherwise, the domestic worker should be compensated in cash.

However, the contract does not specify a domestic worker’s salary. On top of the commonly debated issue on day offs, foreign workers also have to bare the brunt of xenophobic feelings towards them in the neighbourhood such as in the much publicised case of Serangoon Gardens.

Hence, when she first learned of the plight of the domestic workers, Bridget, who came from a background of human resource management, was appalled.

She cites two examples why: An average domestic worker earns about 350 Singapore dollars a month for working 30 days and for about 16 hours a day. That boils down to less than a dollar an hour – a measly wage for all the hard work an average domestic worker has to do daily. Also, an average condominium’s architect would often construct the maid’s room just enough to fit a single bed and often without much ventilation.

But what’s worse, says Bridget, is that the majority of the domestic workers here do not even have a weekly day off.

“These are the basics. You should treat your domestic worker like how you want your employer to treat you. Wouldn’t you want a day off each week?” said Bridget. “Besides, you can resign if you want to but these workers can hardly do that. They may have to top up their loan to be referred to a new employer. If not, their work permit will be cancelled and they will be sent home penniless.”

Without an appropriate counsel, these domestic workers may suffer any oppression or even abuse that they meet with silence rather than risk getting sent back to their home countries. Or they may also be forced to leave without a trial or any compensation due to the lack of evidence.

Other times, as it takes a considerable amount of time for investigations to be completed, these workers would simply choose to return home as there is nowhere here that they can go to for shelter and no one here to help them.

And this is where HOME steps in.

“We’ve not done too bad over the past five years,” Bridget said. HOME has gone beyond its initial vision to provide counseling and paralegal assistance to migrant workers under duress from their employers. It has established two shelters to provide for migrant workers who are no longer able to reside with their employers due to abuse or threat.

Also, HOME runs a 24-hour helpline and two help-desks for workers in distress. The organisation is the only humanitarian endeavour in Singapore that provides shelter for migrant workers.

But six years, a Nobel nomination, and several success stories later, Bridget remains humble about the immense value and service that H.O.M.E. offers in Singapore. A devout Catholic, Bridget credits her success to her faith. “Faith has often enabled me to overcome the fear of running into financial difficulties,” said Bridget.

H.O.M.E.’s biggest challenge lies in finding sufficient funds to sustain their shelters. “We need at least $20,000 a month, or 250,000 a year,” said Bridget.

That was one of the reasons why Bridget decided to set up StarHome, a work placement service of a social enterprise, in 2005. She hoped that the social enterprise would be a helpful part of the mission and at the same time, generate some income for H.O.M.E.. But despite her setting up StarHome out of her own pocket, there were opposition from some profit-making employment agencies that accused her of making money out of her mission and being unfair competition.

“There was a perceived conflict of interest with running H.O.M.E. at the same time, and since it was never profitable anyway, I gave it away to an ex-domestic worker who is currently running a shelter in Batam,” said Bridget, who ran StarHome for three years before taking the practical route out by giving it away at her own loss.

She shares her lesson on social enterprise learnt: “It is not easy running a social enterprise. You have to consider whether the business will become a liability for the organisation instead. That is why I set it up under my own name. And later, rather than spend the time changing public opinion, I chose to focus on the mission at hand by giving it away to someone whom I can trust.”

In fact, Bridget also had ideas to set up a thrift shop to raise funds but due to the nature of H.O.M.E. – it serves foreigners rather than locals – they were unable to get tax exemptions or subsidized rental like the other charities and the plan was shelved.

Still, rather than giving up on H.O.M.E. due to tight finances, Bridget employs her experience in the field of human resource to the fullest – H.O.M.E. is run entirely by volunteers. By recognising and matching the skills of their volunteers with the needs of migrants workers in Singapore, H.O.M.E. has managed to maximise the capacity of its volunteers to running the organisation at as little cost as possible. Bridget, for one, works full-time without pay.

But finances aside, she says, almost as challenging is changing the mindsets of the local society.

Said Bridget: “Migrant workers aren’t popular with the locals.”

“People have said that I’m so foolish for investing so much time and money in this work. I even had to convince my own mother and daughter that the work I do is for a just cause.”

When she just begun, Bridget received obscenities on her mobile from some employment agencies who felt threatened by H.O.M.E.’s existence and people who oppose her work such as employers who had their maids protected through H.O.M.E..

On the other hand, she has also met people who encourage her greatly especially those through their actions – good employers who treat their domestic workers well by giving them the basic weekly day off and some, even sending them for courses to improve themselves.

“But the good employers I’ve seen are largely the angmohs,” said Bridget. “Perhaps it is the culture we were brought up in.”

The social and economical impact of migrant workers has long been an international agenda. For example, the rights of migrant workers lists third on the United Nations global agenda. However, the Convention on Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers, which was adopted in 1990 and acceded by 21 states, is not acceded here in Singapore.

It might well be a result of our culture but Bridget trusts that the Singaporean government is beginning to realize the impact and importance of addressing migrant worker issues.

“Neglecting them may result in severe repercussions such as a strain on diplomatic problems or a stain on Singapore’s image as a choice of city for foreign talents to work in, especially when about one third of our population is made up of foreign workers,” said Bridget.

“Therefore, there should be more in terms of social services for foreign workers and Singaporeans of all people should understand. After all, most of our ancestors are migrants themselves.”

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