Building back better

Thanks to the MWS team for this photo!

Last Sunday, I was asked to say a few words at the closing of the inaugural Mental Health Awareness & Well-being Festival, organised by the Migrant Writers of Singapore. Now that I’ve had a chance to collect my thoughts (and to mark this Labour Day weekend!), here’s a slightly expanded version of what I said:

Dear friends,

I’m really honoured to be here. Big congratulations to the Migrant Writers of Singapore for your very first – and very successful – Mental Health Festival! I’m amazed at how you put this together despite the constraints of COVID-19, and deeply grateful that this labour of love is not only for the migrant community, but everyone who calls Singapore home. I know many people will have benefited from today’s programme.

Congratulations especially to brother Zakir. Some of you will know that already last year, before COVID-19, he resolved to make ‘mental health’ the focus of MWS’s activities. This was prescient, and today’s event is only possible thanks to his vision and leadership.

Now, some of you may be here at an MWS event, or joining us online, for the first time. MWS is an amazing organisation. It is the first ground-up and truly multinational initiative by the migrant community in Singapore, with brothers and sisters who came together out of a love for writing, and stayed together out of a desire to support each other and do good. Let me take this chance to urge you to look out for their activities, or continue supporting them in any way you can.

This hasn’t been an easy few weeks for the migrant community. We’ve heard about new cases in the dorms, as well as many traffic and worksite accidents. These have all made our hearts hurt, and we grieve with you. Of course, we know that even before COVID-19, many brothers and sisters have endured such accidents, especially those who work in dangerous conditions. Today’s programme reminds us that in addition to the injuries and accidents that make it to the headlines, there is also the invisible but no less heavy burden on their mental health that our brothers and sisters bear.

I don’t quite like the term “accident”, because it can make us think that these injuries, seen or unseen, are inevitable – or “cannot be helped”. We should not forget that so much of this hurt is preventable. Just as there are real actions that we can take to make work safer, there are also real actions that we can take to lessen the strain on the mental health of our brothers and sisters. These are not just things we have to “cope with”. No brother or sister should have to face either the invisible injuries of mental health or the physical injuries and accidents; no-one should have to suffer in silence.

The theme of today’s Festival is ‘Building Back Better: Mental Health Beyond COVID-19’. As we look beyond today, and beyond this period of the pandemic, I hope that we will not lose sight of the possibility of change. Rather than a one-off opportunity for us to come together to think about what mental health means, I hope this Festival will remind us to work together to make a lasting difference for our brothers and sisters.

To everyone who’s online, and everyone who’s here today, thanks for your support today. And thanks, once again, to the team.