Building of Bridges

Overview

Building of Bridges (“BOB”) is a Pro Bono project aimed to raise awareness amongst the migrant worker community about their legal rights. Migrant workers are often seen as a vulnerable group of people and are seen as easy targets of exploitation by individuals with ill-intent. There is therefore a need for migrant workers to gain a better understanding of their legal rights, especially under the Work Injury Compensation Act (WICA) or the Employment Act (EA), to protect themselves from being taken advantage of.

This is where BOB steps in. We aim to support existing initiatives by collaborating with external organisations like LSPBS, MOM, and HOME. We will achieve this goal by acting as a go-between between these organisations and law students. 

We have 3 types of activities members can look forward to:

  1. Focus group discussions and a workshop with LSPBS & MOM during each semester (i.e. during each semester, the LSBPS and MOM workshops will run concurrently, with one set of students attached to one organisation); 
  2. An internship with HOME during the Winter break; and 
  3. An infographic consolidating all the information our members gained throughout the workshops, to be submitted at the end of the academic year. 

AY 21/22 BOB Zoom Project Meeting

Reflections

“BOB faced many challenges in AY2021/22 because of prevailing COVID restrictions. We were unable to carry out many of the face-to-face interactions with external organisations and beneficiaries (i.e. migrant workers) we have planned. However, we made do by holding sessions on Zoom and doing our best to impart legal knowledge to the 40-50 migrant workers we managed to reach. On top of that, some of our peers went for the internship with HOME in December and the feedback was generally positive. The intership gave students a chance to work closely with lawyers to help migrant workers. This internship is especially applicable for Year 1s, as no prior legal knowledge is required. The barrier of entry is low as compared to interning with law firms and it would be a good springboard for Year 1s to gain experience doing legal work outside of the academic curriculum.”

Darren Lim