Remarks at Racial Harmony Day Celebration

Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash, Sembawang Recreation Centre

Good afternoon to our migrant brothers and sisters, partners and volunteers!

2 I am delighted to join you today at Sembawang RC as we celebrate Racial Harmony Day together jointly organised by Hope Initiative Alliance or HIA, 24asia and the Ministry of Manpower’s Assurance, Care and Engagement or ACE Group.

3 For 60 years, Singapore has shown that our strength comes from people of different races and religions living harmoniously together. This includes our migrant worker friends, who have become an important part of our Singapore story.

4 To our migrant worker friends – you contribute to Singapore not just through your work, but through your active participation in our community. Your enthusiasm in embracing our different cultures while sharing your own traditions makes Singapore more vibrant and inclusive.

Deepening Cultural Understanding

5 As part of our celebrations, ACE Group has partnered with HIA, Sowing Care Together and 24asia to organise a series of activities throughout June and July. These include guided tours to cultural sites and interfaith dialogues that bring together migrant workers and locals to share experiences and deepen understanding of our diverse cultural and religious practices.

6 I am particularly heartened that over 100 young Singaporeans have stepped forward as facilitators and volunteers for these activities. Among them is Lionel, whose dedication stands out through his work with the Sowing Care Together team, which is a youth leadership movement under the HIA. Not only did he help to organise the tours and dialogues, but he also reached out to new community partners to support today’s celebrations, enriching the experience for our migrant community. Lionel and his fellow young volunteers demonstrate how our youth are building meaningful connections across communities and deepening our shared appreciation of Singapore's multiracial heritage.

MOM-HIA Partnership

7 Since its founding in 2018, HIA has been providing comprehensive care to marginalised individuals in Singapore, including citizens, residents and migrant workers. Arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, HIA has broadened and deepened its outreach programmes in partnership with MOM to provide care, training and community engagement to both our migrant workers and migrant domestic workers. I would like to congratulate HIA for receiving this year’s Public Sector Transformation Star Partner Award. This is due recognition for the outstanding and consistent good work which HIA has been doing since its inception.

8 Building on this momentum, I am pleased to announce new initiatives to further strengthen our partnership with HIA to better support our migrant community:

• Firstly, MOM will support HIA to increase the frequency of cultural exchanges between the local and migrant communities. We will conduct monthly activities like heritage tours, interfaith dialogues and festive celebrations for more workers and members of the community. We hope to create opportunities for 4,000 migrant workers and 1,000 locals to learn about each other’s cultures, share life experiences and build lasting connections every year.

• Secondly, HIA will expand learning opportunities for 1,500 migrant workers through the conduct of practical courses in computer skills, AutoCAD, English language, and financial literacy. These courses, conducted at the recreation centres, meet the needs of workers who intend to improve their language proficiency, learn new skills and competencies that would be useful for their work in Singapore or when they return home.

• For our migrant domestic worker community, MOM is strengthening the support for the Care Sisters Programme under the stewardship of the Alliance of Domestic Employees Outreach (ADEO). The Care Sisters programme recruits migrant domestic worker volunteers to support their peers through sharing important information such as scam prevention and offering emotional support when needed. MOM aims to equip 1,500 Care Sisters with peer support training like psychological first aid and peer mediation, over the next two years.

9 These initiatives reflect our commitment to strengthen support for our migrant community through skills development, cultural interaction, and enhanced peer support networks. These initiatives complement the full suite of activities, programmes and initiatives that MOM curates with over 200 partners. Together, these activities see more than 500,000 participations annually, with many workers joining multiple programmes throughout the year.

Conclusion

10 Looking around today, seeing the vibrant traditional costumes, and witnessing the warm interactions between Singaporeans and our migrant friends as we enjoy the splendid performances, it amplifies how harmony is brought about by genuine understanding and appreciation of our differences.

11 I would like to express my sincere thanks to our partners and volunteers who have made today's celebration possible. Special thanks to Hope Initiative Alliance and our ten community partners, including Youth Corps Singapore and SINDA Youth Club, for their dedication to fostering these meaningful connections.

12 As we celebrate SG60, let us continue to strengthen these bonds and build an even more inclusive Singapore together.

13 Thank you all for being here, and please enjoy the rest of today's celebration.