A Food & Fashion Fiesta
December is traditionally a month associated with celebrations, personal reflections, gatherings and communal feastings. Singaporeans enter the weeks leading up to Christmas in a frenzy. However, there are pockets within our community that spend the festivities away from their families. Having toiled all year round for a place they temporarily call home, they spend this Christmas season largely alone, in a foreign land. But we did not forget about celebrating with them.
In keeping with the festive spirit, JRS marked International Migrants Day on December 11 with a party. International Migrants Day (on December 18) celebrates the contributions of migrants worldwide, and serves as a reminder that our local community is moulded from the diversity of the various cultures and backgrounds of our migrant brethren. In collaboration with the Migrant Worker’s Centre (MWC), we threw a Food and Fashion Fiesta for a group of 23 migrant brothers.
Although most of the migrant brothers are not Christians, we thought it was meaningful to end off the year and celebrate the joy of Christmas with them. Who doesn’t like having good company and receiving a thoughtful gift anyway?
We started off the party with a round of Bingo. Those who had the winning numbers got an advantage in picking out their Christmas gift. Blessed by the generosity of our volunteers, friends and family who responded to our call for Christmas gifts, all who participated in this event were presented with a special gift of a shirt.
The happy recipients were thrilled by the variety of colours, material and sleeve length of these shirts. Some zoomed into the long-sleeved shirts which looked smart and formal, while others had more practical reasons (the warm weather) for choosing the short-sleeved shirts. We also played ‘fashion co-ordinator’ for some of the guys — giving feedback on which colours looked better on them. It was satisfying when we could snip off the tags from the shirts once they had found their new owners.
A splash of new and colourful clothes really brightened up the mood and elicited their happy smiles. We whipped out the instant camera which Karyl had brought along to capture their excitement and printed their portraits out on the spot — thanks again to Karyl’s sponsorship of the instant film. Some of them gamely posed for pictures individually or with their friends; whilst some were a little camera-shy.
We all know that good food is the highlight of any party, and everyone was delighted with the pizza and drinks generously sponsored by MWC. We had a wonderful time connecting over food. It was such a blessing to witness the joy of the group gathered before us. Everyone gamely posed with their widest smiles for the group photo, yes, even those who were too camera-shy earlier joined in and we captured this memorable day on film.
It was indeed an uplifting experience to cap off the year with an event filled with such a festive spirit. We were deeply touched by the generosity of those who went out of their way to select and purchase the gifts for our migrant brothers. This was the last migrant outreach event for 2024, but the JRS team is already planning for a slew of events for 2025! So watch this space as we invite you to join us for another amazing year ahead!