PUBLISHED ONJuly 30, 2025 4:50 AMBYChing Shi JieA local charity has raised a five-digit sum to show its appreciation to the migrant workers who helped to rescue the driver of the car which fell into the Tanjong Katong sinkhole.
The fundraising campaign by ItsRainingRaincoats on Giving.sg, which started on Monday (July 28), saw more than $24,000 raised within 24 hours.
More than $72,000 have been raised from over 1,600 donors as of Wednesday afternoon.
Founded by lawyer Dipa Swaminathan in 2015, the charity said that the campaign is its way of saying "thank you" to the workers.
At about 5pm on Saturday, a stretch of road along Tanjong Katong Road South collapsed, causing a vehicle to plunge into the hole.
A group of workers, led by 47-year-old construction site foreman Pitchai Udaiyappan Subbiah, used a nylon rope to pull a woman out of the sinkhole within five minutes.
In a message on its fundraising campaign website, ItsRainingRaincoats said the migrant workers acted "with speed, bravery, and remarkable selflessness", and "their bravery touched a nation".
"If we can't give them medals, we can still give them dignity," the local charity added. "This campaign is our way — your way — of saying thank you".
Speaking to AsiaOne, ItsRainingRaincoats founder Dipa hopes that the migrant workers' actions will change the way Singaporeans see them.
She noted that Subbiah has been working in Singapore for 22 years, which she said is long enough to be called a resident here.
"But we still think of them as if there's some migratory flock, which is not true," she said. "I hope we look at them as residents, and treat them as the men who given their life to building Singapore. There's nothing transient about them."
On Wednesday, the seven migrant workers involved in the rescue effort were presented with a token of appreciation from the Ministry of Manpower.
Subbiah, as well as Velmurugan Muthusamy, Poomalai Saravanan, Ganesan Veerasekar, Bose Ajithkumar, Narayanasamy Mayakrishnan and Sathapillai Rajendran, each received a Friends of Ace coin from Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash.
Dinesh said that coin, which he described as a small token of appreciation, "goes a long way" in recognising the efforts of migrant workers.
"I think this is a very good example of how our migrant workers help society in general," added Dinesh, who is also an MP for East Coast GRC and Mayor of Southeast District.
"Not only do they work at the worksites and build Singapore, especially in the construction sector, but they also step forward and make themselves counted when it's important for them to do so."
Dipa also lamented it is "unfortunate" that it would take a case of migrant workers stepping in again as first responders for them to gain recognition in the eyes of the public.
In another incident in April, a group of workers helped evacuate children from the second floor of a shophouse in River Valley after a fire broke out.
"Will this be another case of collective short-term memory?" Asked Dipa. "And you know, would they be forgotten two months later?"
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chingshiie@asiaone.com
