Almost S$130,000 raised for families of 3 foreign workers

Singapore — A crowdfunding campaign will ensure that the family of a foreign worker found motionless at a staircase landing in Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) will have their needs met, especially for the education of his daughters.

The worker, Indian national Alagu Periyakarrupan, has a wife and three daughters back home. He was 46 years old.

He had tested positive for Covid-19 on April 19 and was case 8,190 on the database of the Ministry of Health. On April 23, he was found motionless at a staircase landing in the hospital.

He died of injuries consistent with a fall from a high place on the same day.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) issued a statement saying the foreign worker had been in Singapore since 2009 and had been with the same employer working in construction from the time of his arrival. The deceased’s roommates and friends received a visit by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo and Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam that day.

After Mr Alagu’s death, a fundraising campaign was started by the itsrainingraincoats volunteer group and an MP, Mr Louis Ng.

The donations that come in will also help the families of two other foreign workers who died of a heart attack in April, Mr Suppaiah Shanmuganathan and Mr Subbiah Sivasankar. Mr Suppaiah had also tested positive for Covid-19, wrote Mr Ng in a Facebook post. Details of the fundraiser can be found here.

As of Wednesday afternoon (May 6), S$129,084 had been raised out of a target sum of S$150,000.

The MP wrote at length about Mr Alagu. He said that since he also has three children, it was difficult to imagine the foreign worker’s children growing up without a father.

He said: “They helped to build Singapore and it’s time for us to help their families.”

According to the fundraiser page on give.asia: “Most of the time, they are the sole breadwinner for their family. If anything happens to them, their families face a very uncertain future.”

Ms Dipa Swaminathan of ItsRainingRaincoats wrote: “No amount of money can compensate these families for a father gone too soon, a husband who can’t be replaced or a son who will never come home. The least we can do is ensure that the mission that brought these men here — to provide for their families — is accomplished in their name.” /TISG

Read related: Josephine Teo and K Shanmugam visit dormitory of Covid-19 positive foreign worker who was found dead

Josephine Teo and K Shanmugam visit dormitory of Covid-19 positive foreign worker who was found dead