by Chairman Ong Keng Yong @ Bencoolen Mosque, 3 September 2024
A very good afternoon to
Our Guest-of-Honour, MOS Sun Xueling
Minister of State, Home Affairs and Social & Family Development
Mr Mohamed Rafeeq, Chairman of Bencoolen Mosque
Esteemed faith leaders and members
Civic partners and corporate supporters
Our valued migrant workforce
Ladies and gentlemen
Good afternoon! Welcome to the launch of Bangladesh and South Asian Monsoon Fundraising Appeal. Thank you for making time to join us. We thank everyone for responding within such short notice.
Humanity Matters has been monitoring the devastating monsoon situation across South Asia and the typhoons that have been lashing winds and splashing rains across North Asia. With extreme winds, rains, floods, droughts and earthquakes, landslides have become an increasingly destructive and deadly menace to man.
Until humans significantly address greenhouse emissions and climate change, natural disasters will remain significantly damaging to the lives and livelihoods of billions of people and our next generations. And while we strive towards climate change adaptation and revitalising Mother Nature, we will need organisations and groups such as Humanity Matters to rally resources and respond to the plight of those battered by severe natural disasters. Two weeks ago, we had the privilege of having Minister K Shanmugam to launch the ASEAN CARE – it is a ground-up civilian nexus which cross-shares resources for regional emergencies.
For this Bangladesh and South Asian monsoon relief fundraiser, we hope to rally not just the Singaporean public, but also the migrant workforce and their employers, to raise funds together and put collective compassion in motion.
On that note, I would like to extend our gratitude to the following organisations for responding immediately to Humanity Matters’ call for support:
Mr Rafeeq and the Bencoolen Mosque, for being today’s venue host and your contribution;
Master Lee Zhiwang and Taoist Mission Singapore for your continued contribution and unflinching support;
Messrs. Danny Chua and Mr Charles Quek from Association of Process Industry (ASPRI) for stepping forward and helping to kickstart this fundraising with your contribution;
Mr Zillur Rahman and the Singapore Bangladeshi Society (SBS) for helping to share your networks; and
Deputy Mufti Hannan Hassan, for agreeing to share your wisdom on living good in a foreign and plural society.
And I must also make a special mention to the group of Bangladeshis here who called themselves the ‘Wandering Dervishes’, co-founded by Dr Muntasir. Their members turned out by the hundreds during Humanity Matters’ street collection fundraiser last April for the civilians in Gaza. They walked the streets with donation cans through the rains and the sun, and several of them collected more than $1,000 in a single can. You saw them in the video screened to you earlier. Ten of their members are here, so please join me in commending their efforts.
As I have mentioned before, Humanity Matters can only do as much as the support we get. Our relief team will be deployed to Bangladesh shortly and we hope to be able to provide as much aid as possible to the affected population, and not only in Bangladesh, but thereafter possibly in the other two monsoon-hit South Asian countries, namely Nepal and India.
With that, thank you very much once again to everyone and our Guest-of-Honor, as we strive together towards the vision of one human nation, and one common humanity.
-End-
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