The Struggle

It is never an easy decision for one to leave their hometown to help sustain the lives they leave behind. Like any migrant worker, Mr Yang Jingzhi came to Singapore with the hope of improving the lives of his family back home in the Henan province in China. The 38-year-old, who is the sole breadwinner of his family and the father to two schooling children, worked long hours 7 days a week in order to support his family. Mr Yang works from 8 am to 8:30 pm including 3 hours of overtime daily. Despite the constant need for focus and mental exhaustion from his job as a machine operator, Mr Yang had no complaints and looked forward to video-calling his family almost every night after work. To him, nothing mattered more than keeping in close contact with his family who was his emotional support that kept him journeying on alone in Singapore.

Unfortunately, Mr Yang died in his sleep from a heart attack on 8th April 2019, diagnosed by the doctor as ischaemic heart disease. He leaves behind his 70-year-old father, wife and two children aged 16 and 8 years old. Mr Yang’s 16-year-old son is currently in upper Secondary and his 8-year-old daughter is in Primary 2.

Help Needed – Give Hope

After Mr Yang passed on, his wife (39-year-old Mrs Yang) and his uncle came over to Singapore to settle his afterlife matters. Mrs Yang was visibly distraught as she is still trying to come to terms with the passing on of her beloved spouse who was more than just the financial support of the family.

Recalling how Mr Yang has always doted on the children, Mrs Yang told us that Mr Yang would never fail to video-call them each night up to the night before he passed on, and their children always looked forward to hearing their father’s voice. “And then I found myself struggling to answer our 8-year-old on why daddy hasn’t called home for 2 days, or 7 days, and now… I know I have to break the news that day would never be able to come back to us…”, said Mrs Yang.

Besides having to deal with the heartbreak of losing her spouse unexpectedly, Madam Yang knows that she needs to play a dual-role to their two school-going children. With the loss of the breadwinner in the family, Mrs Yang is worried about the finances at home as the family is currently in debts of about S$10,000, largely owing to family and friends (S$8,000) and about S$2,000 owing as agent fees. Mr Yang had used his earlier earnings to repay part of the outstanding agent fees.

Mr Yang’s employer helped the family with a $1,000 ex gratia payment. Unfortunately, Mr Yang’s family is not entitled to any form of compensation as the death was not due to work injury. Nonetheless, Mrs Yang told us that the family is grateful for the support that they have received thus far, including the help from the migrant worker advocacy organisation in helping them with the cremation matters of Mr Yang and the liaison work with the MOM and his employer.

Financial Breakdown

ROH would like to raise $5,000 for the deceased Mr Yang’s family while they are still grieving over the death of Mr Yang.

The $5,000 raised would go towards supporting Mrs Yang in terms of the school fees for her 16-year-old son (S$3,000 per year), the school fees for their 8-year-old daughter (S$1,000 per year) and living expenses (S$200 x 5 months).

Your donations would give hope to Mrs Yang and her children!