4th Annual General Meeting

Thank you for giving up time this weekend to come to the annual general meeting. This is an occasion for summing up the work of the society in the past year, and for considering our future activities, but also for expressing our thanks and appreciation to all who have contributed to the society's efforts.

Among the major events in our calendar were the showing of 'Ghosts' in August, the law seminar on November 1st and the International Migrants' Day activities spread over the weekend of December 15th-16th. In each case, we worked with partner organisations and were happy to do so. We appreciate the commitment they put into making these events happen. I must also thank Braema Mathi for her work in planning and piloting through the law seminar, and the members of the society who contributed time, effort and resources to these events.

Special thanks are due to TWC2's staff. Both John Devasahayam, our Office Manager and Sha Najak, our Helpline Manager, put in a tremendous amount of work on the year's big projects, way beyond the strictly defined limits of their jobs, and we should all be deeply appreciative of that. I must also say that they have worked hard and conscientiously on all the tasks to do with the daily functioning of the office and the society. I'm sure that there are many occasions on which their patience has been sorely tested, but they have gone on resiliently. I must also give credit here to Caris Lim, who came to work part time with us last year while Sha was doing the same. Her insights and skills were commented on very favourably at the time and her work was much appreciated.

Most of our work has been of an uncelebrated, little publicised kind, but it was necessary, important and deserves to be recognised. Our helpliners made a big commitment when they volunteered to help run this service. They have made a real difference to hundreds of people's lives already. I've read the report on the first year of the helpline, and, as a member of the helpline committee, I've heard about the problems callers have faced. These volunteers made sure that when they reached out for help, there was someone there for them. We are very grateful to you all.

I'd like to thank the members who contributed to our work in the past year. I must give a special mention to Debbie and Veness, who gave a great deal of time and energy to the pilot English language class last year, contributed to the work of the research committee and came along to help on many occasions.

We are grateful to those bodies that gave contributions and financial support, both for specific events such as those of the International Migrants' Day weekend (they included M1 Singapore, Lee Foundation and Central CDC) and again, the Lee Foundation, whose contribution has underpinned our capability to function on our present basis well into the second half of this year. I also thank Tessa, Lucy, Bizibody and Catapult Advertising for their contributions.

We appreciate the work that Digital Boomerang put into our website and their subsequent back-up support for us in maintaining it.

It has been a good year for co-operation with official institutions concerned with migrant workers. Our helpline's contact with the MOM has been fairly fruitful, and we have had valuable exchanges with most of the missions of countries that send workers here.

It has been a pleasure to co-operate with institutions and networks associated with migrant workers here, including Filipino Overseas Workers Society, Indonesian Family Network, Friends of Thai Workers, Hello Asia! and Pinoy Star. They have been supportive of our work and we are very grateful for that.

Finally, I must thank my colleagues on the Executive Committee for all the work they have put in over the past year. Most of it is the kind that is largely invisible to members, never mind the outside world, but it has been vital to TWC2.

We know there is much for us to do and that what we are able to achieve will depend to a large extent on us expanding our membership, finding the volunteers who can drive forward TWC2's work in all the areas it covers and raising the money that's needed to support any undertaking such as this upon which we have embarked. I hope that in the year ahead, we can count on the support and co-operation of all those with whom we have worked and achieved much in the past 12 months and that we will find more friends and supporters: people who share our beliefs and sympathise with our commitment to the advancement of the rights and status of migrant workers and to a fair deal for all parties concerned with their employment.