These domestic workers share why they volunteer in the lead-up to International Domestic Workers' Day on June 16

Every other Sunday, Ms Istriyanti can be found behind a help desk at shopping centre City Plaza from 11am to 6pm, providing advice and support to distressed domestic workers from Indonesia.

- Teo Kai Xiang

The 45-year-old domestic worker, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, has spent the past 15 years living and working in Singapore. She has been volunteering with local migrant worker non-profit Home for 13 of those years.

To her, volunteering is about giving back to a community that supported her through her lowest point in life.

After she moved to Singapore in 2010 to become a domestic worker, physical abuse from her first employer meant spending 14 months at Home's crisis shelter for women, unable to work while her case was pending.

"My story's a bit sad because, to work here, I left my eight-month-old baby behind. Back then, I was not allowed to use a phone and I had no days off.

"I didn't know my baby had passed away because I couldn't contact my family for 18 months," she says. She tears up as she recounts to The Sunday Times how her only daughter died while in the care of her relatives.

During her time at the shelter, she met other women struck by similar tragedies. "That's when I thought, after my case is done, I promise to be a volunteer for Home."

Her volunteering now extends beyond Sundays.

She was among the first to volunteer, even before Home set up the formal help desk for Indonesian domestic workers in 2011 at City Plaza in Geylang, a frequent hangout for these helpers. As such, her private number is one that other helpers can call whenever they need assistance. "Whatever they need, we must be available 24 hours," she says.

Cases that require legal or more support are referred to Home's four full-time case workers.

Ms Istriyanti recalls a helper calling her in 2017 after her employer had struck her in the face with a potato, causing her to bleed. The worker was worried about involving the authorities, but eventually won compensation from her employer.