Finally a New Post!

Hi everyone,

So I realize it's been 19/20 days since my last post, and I apologize. My life has been absolutely insane! Between work, new found friends, work, work, going out, oh, and more work, I have not had the time or energy to blog! Normally by the time I get home at night, I zonk out in my lovely twin-sized bed. Plus my computer has been having major problemos (not charging... which it started doing around March but has progressively gotten to the point where it is unusable - thank the stars my work had an extra lappy laying around just begging for use).

Ok, so let me give you an update on work first: I absolutely love what I am doing, even though it requires a lot of time, energy, and emotional commitment. Everyday I get to the office around 9:00/9:30 (and by get I mean wake up, shower, get dressed [jeans around here - can I just tell you how much I enjoy working for an NGO?!?!?!] and walk up half a flight of stairs from my bedroom to my office), and usually don't leave until at least 6:30/7:00 (although sometimes later if there's a meeting or whatnot). The main part of my job is interviewing domestic workers that have run away from their employers and/or agencies for some reason and are in need of some sort of legal advice and/or counsel.

Let me back-track: foreign domestic workers are brought into Singapore from other countries (mostly Philippines, followed by Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, China [v. rarely], Bangladesh, etc) by "brokers" who serve as a sort of middle-man between the "girls" and the agencies here. The Singaporean government requires that all migrant workers (whether domestic, construction, etc workers) have an employer before they arrive in Singers. So, the brokers get the girls, the girls go through an agency, and the agency finds them an employer here. When they arrive in Singapore, they go straight to their agency, and are usually held there for 3-7 days before reporting to their employer's home to live and work. Also, when the girls come here, they owe a "loan" to their agencies - usually 6 months or so of their pay - for their plane ticket, visa, "incidentals," and, of course, the agency's fee to bring them here. So, for at least 6 months, the girls work in the home of their employer for the meager sum of S$20/month (think about $15 USD) "allowance money."

Ok, so there's a little background about how the girls get here and their situation. My job comes in when these girls run away from thier employer or thier agency. Most of the time the girl has suffered some sort of abuse, whether physical, mental, withholding of food, long working hours, unpaid wages, being forced to work in more than one household (or the employer's shop or business), etc. If the girl is mistreated by her employer and asks to be transferred, or the employer chooses to send her back to the agency (for any number of reasons, or in the alternative, completely lacking in reason), the girls' loans are "topped off" by the agency - meaning another 1, 2, or even 3 months of salary is "owed" to the agency (BTW: in reality, the agency hasn't put out any money - the employers usually have to pay about S$2000 to the agency before they can begin recieving domestic workers). This means that some of these girls work 9 months - 1 year without pay, other than their S$20 allowance, which some don't even get.

So the girl runs away from her employer, or her agency, and comes to HOME (my organization). We provide her shelter, food, counseling, and (drum roll please) pro bono legal services, if needed. What, praytell, does this mean? Well, in a nutshell, it means I (and my boss Aveline, a Singaporean attorney) interview the girls, find out about their cases, and begin the oh-so-fun-and-exciting task of calling agencies and employers. I say "oh-so-fun-and-exciting" because usually the employers/agents are MAD. And when I say MAD, I mean going-to-rip-me-a-new-one-even-though-I'm-just-the-messenger mad. They can't believe the DW (domestic worker) has run away, they don't know what they have done, they have never mistreated her, ya-diddy-ya-diddy-ya. I speak to the employers/agents, and try to arrange a time to mediate the case. Sometimes the girl just wants to go home, sometimes she wants to stay and work. I will arrange a meeting with the employer/agency, try to get what the girl wants (plane ticket home or a work release), her luggage, passport, personal belongings, etc.

Mondays we usually have 6-8 cases. The rest of the week, the load lightens and we may only have 1-2 on any given day. Besides the case mediation, I also write letters to MOM (Ministry of Manpower, Singapore's Department of Labor, and where my visa/work permit came from) dealing with violations of Employment Law, and the police if there is a violation of the Penal Code (a criminal act, like physical abuse of a domestic worker). I have also been put in charge of our newly-established Legal Resource Library, and been cataloging and adding new material to that. I work with volunteers, do a bit of chatting with the press now and again, take pictures at events (this past Saturday we had an Open House to celebrate the opening of the Resource Centre and Legal Helpdesk - pics to come at a later date), and generally do anything that is needed of me. I attend meetings with other organizations about the services the Legal Helpdesk provides, including international law firms, other "sister" organizations, The Body Shop (yes, that Body Shop - they have graciously decided to fund our Victims of Sex Trafficking Hotline), etc. I speak with the girls, help comfort and counsel them. I research employment law, statutes, regulations, etc. Lunch I take in the conference room of the Resource Centre, graciously prepared by some of the girls from the shelter.

I love what I am doing. Some days are harder than others (today is a prime example of that), and some days the "crazies" come out of the woodwork and I spend half the day on the phone listening to an employer/agent tell me about all the things the DW did wrong, to which I reply, "Well, I'm not passing judgment either way, I'm just facilitating the DW's right to assert her rights, and she feels like she has suffered an injustice," but all in all, I love what I am doing. I honestly and truly believe that the system here is set up in a way that is very unfair to the DW. These are women who are abused, marginalized, taken advantage of, and, in a nutshell, treated like animals. This isn't to say that all DWs are - some have good employers and are very happy, but here I see case after case after case where the DW is verbally abused, called names like "stupid," "you idiot," etc; overworked; underfed; underpaid; made to sleep on the floor; locked in the employer's home unable to leave; and sometimes physically and/or sexually abused. One of my cases involves a girl who was locked in a home and jumped out of a third-story window to escape. One was sexually assaulted by her employer's husband. One was beaten. One attempted suicide. The list goes on and on and on. And when I get on the phone with these employers and/or agents, fight with them, argue with them, I know that I am fighting/arguing/working for someone's rights who have been so violated, so trampled and squashed and completely forgotten that they have no one else. In the last 3 weeks, I have had girls cry out of sadness and pain, put their trust in me to help them, and then get to see them cry out of happiness because I have gotten them a plane ticket home, their belongings, and back wages/salary owed. My boss says my American accent helps - she says when people hear an American accent on the phone they automatically get really frightened that they have done something wrong. Lucky me I guess. I'm not sure, but seeing those girls cry out of happiness and thanking me for helping them makes even the worst day completely worth it.

Besides work, I have been going out with friends a lot. I met a girl named Lucy, a PhD student from the UK who is volunteering a few days a week with us for the summer, and she and I have really hit it off as well. She's a great shopping partner, likes to club and pub hop, and generally a pretty laid-back type. My kind of girl. I think she, Aveline, and I might try to go to Sentosa (the beach) this weekend for a little fun in the sun. I need a tan....

I've met so many wonderful people here. All of Aveline's friends, Lucy, a few other vounteers - everyone is so nice, warm, friendly, and caring. I guess that's kind of the requirements for NGO work. You certainly don't go into this type of occupation for the oodles of cash, that's for sure. But honestly, I don't care. Even if I would have made top 10% of my first-year law school class and landed a cush job at a swanky firm, being wined and dined, and paid more in 2 weeks than I'll get paid the entire summer, I would have chosen what I'm doing now. That's not to pass on any ill-will or bad feelings to those who did land those kinds of positions, it's just not for me. I love what I'm doing, I love the experience, I love actually mediating cases and writing Settlement Agreements and handling cases myself. I love these girls (I don't work with the men very much), and I don't think I could have hand-picked any other job in the world that satisfies me as much as this one does. I am learning so much, about law, about life, about others, and about myself. I love that this past Saturday night, the people I was hanging out with hailed from the US (me), the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India, Holland, and Sweden.

I spoke to my mom yesterday, and she and my step-dad are coming to visit me here on 4 July for a week. I am so excited to have them here. Niether one has ever been to Asia, and I can't wait to show them around and share a bit of my experience with them. I really hope that even in a short amount of time, they get to see what I do and why I do it. I'm taking them to all of the touristy stuff, but I also plan to take them to the shelter for dinner with the girls one night, bring them to my office, and let them talk to some of the girls and hear their experiences.

Part of me already does not want to leave here in August. Part of me wants to say "The H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks with Law School" and stay here and continue with the work I have started. I've actually been rolling the idea around in my head for the last 2.5 weeks. But, as I have to remind myself, I have to return to the States and finish what I started so I can do this "for real." But I think that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just can't imagine returning to the States and resigning myself to a profession like family law where I'm mediating two people fighting over a pair of end tables that really niether want and would be hard pressed to fetch $15 combined at a garage sale. No thanks.

I've always felt like God has a plan for me. I know I don't talk about religion or God much, but I've always felt that. Right now, I'm pretty certain that I landed here for a reason. And with that folks, I'm off to bed.