GOH WEI LEONG

CO-FOUNDER AND ADVISER OF HEALTHSERVE

A Healthserve volunteer once encountered a migrant worker who could not bring himself to eat. Not because the food was bad but he was suffering from guilt about working in Singapore in relative security while his family in Bangladesh had lost their jobs and were starving during the pandemic.

“The pain for him was so deep and it is a reflection of the experiences of many migrant workers,” says Goh Wei Leong, co-founder and adviser of Healthserve, a non-profit that provides medical care, counselling and other support services to the migrant worker community. The worker was counselled and eventually resumed eating regularly, but for the general practitioner, this incident reinforced the importance of Healthserve’s ethos. After humanitarian trips to countries including Mongolia and India changed his outlook on life, Goh co-founded Healthserve in 2006. Today, a team of 19 staff and hundreds of volunteers manage and operate its programmes and centres.

This year, it engaged over 7,500 migrant workers through its Covid-19 ground programmes, distributed $345,000 in social services aid and reached 1.5 million views on its websites and online videos. Goh credits the organisation’s success to the genuine concern shown by its volunteers. “The pandemic brought out the best among our volunteers and it shows that in the midst of struggling, there is a ray of hope.”