Despite the social distancing measures implemented by the government, the irony is we now need to be more unified than ever. While there is no certainty as to when we are able to physically come together, to meet and network, many of us have been doing so online. #SGStrong grantee Nicholas Chee and his team built an digital community for artists and freelancers who lost gigs to interact and find support.
“We first got our jobs cancelled when DORSCON Orange was initiated in Singapore and my friends started to share that their gigs were also getting cancelled. So I thought we could setup a Facebook group to share more with each other and see how we can possibly help each other. Members started adding their freelancer friends from the Creative and Cultural industry and before you know it – we now have more than 4500 members.”
By creating an online community platform, Nicholas and his team hopes to connect creative and cultural freelancers to support one another through the pandemic. Their platform also serves as a movement for sharing and generating ideas, for encouraging better practices and for unity amongst the different sectors and industry in Singapore.
“The most valuable experience for me has to be meeting people and making new friends from all the different sectors across the industry and seeing complete strangers coming together, sharing ideas to help each other in spite of this terrible outbreak. It’s still crazy to me how six random strangers got together on FB messenger to create ilostmygig.sg.”
We hope that Nicholas’s vision of unity online will inspire you to not give up on your own community and to continue supporting your neighbours. Together, we are stronger than COVID-19.