SINGAPORE – Banana skin and packets of human faeces were some of the unsavoury things Madam Seah Chwee Hong encountered while collecting mail from posting boxes in the 1970s.

Now 72, she was among the pioneer batch of postwomen who joined Singapore Post in 1974. As a “mail ambassador”, she drove around in a van to collect mail from posting boxes all around the island.

When greeted with unexpected litter, Madam Seah said she would tie up the delivery bag and alert her colleagues back at the post office.

However, there were also occasions when she had to flee from the posting boxes.

“I have seen snakes hiding in the posting boxes in Bukit Timah and Punggol,” she said. “I just had to run.”

Workers like Madam Seah are the motivation for non-profit heritage group My Community’s newly launched Open My Factory tours.

The tours aim to feature such ordinary workers and their workplaces.

Other than SingPost’s mail processing centre, there will be visits to the PacificLight power station, Alba E-Waste’s logistics and sorting hub, the PSA container port, Dodo Seafood Treats’ factory, Bee Sin Shipyard, Tower Transit’s Bulim Bus Depot, the TuasOne waste-to-energy plant and Tai Hua’s soya sauce factory.

Mr Kwek Li Yong, co-founder and executive director of My Community, said one can become successful in any industry or profession.

“There exists a gulf in appreciation for our blue-collar workers compared with white-collar ones. This is a series of experiential tours which take Singaporeans and tourists to our humble industries where they will see the facilities and meet the unsung heroes,” he said.

My Community will be conducting one tour for each venue per month from March 1 to Dec 15, 2024. Each tour, which lasts two hours and is conducted in English, can take up to 35 participants.

The tours are priced at $20 each to cover transport costs, and target both locals and tourists.

Organising the tours can be challenging as many of the sites are restricted, and the organisers have to ensure that the site’s security and participants’ safety are not compromised, said Mr Kwek.

Fortunately for Madam Seah and her colleagues at the time, the garbage and snakes disappeared in the 1980s, though that was also the time when her delivery load became heavier as more Singaporeans used the postal service.

“Singapore became more developed, and Singaporeans became more educated and civilised,” she said.

Madam Seah said her job was often frowned upon by her father, who felt it was a male-dominated vocation and involved too much running around in the sun and rain. However, she loved the freedom of travelling round the island, and was often greeted by kind Samaritans.

These included drivers in Ang Mo Kio who stopped to make way for her and her mail when there were floods, and shopkeepers in Boon Keng Road who would offer her drinks on a hot day.

“The migrant workers in Shenton Way would even help me carry my mail,” she said gratefully.

In 2018, Madam Seah was redeployed to work at the SingPost operation facility in Eunos as a parcel processing officer. It was a sign of the times.

“In the past, we had lots of mail. Now, it is mostly e-commerce parcels, especially during the peak season at the end of the year,” she said.

SingPost handled over six million parcels and packets over November and December 2023.

Of the tours, Mr Gan Heng, SingPost’s head of Singapore operations and transformation, said: “We hope participants will appreciate that there is a village and community of diligent, resilient team members working hard behind the scenes for every package they receive, making every delivery count.”

On why it is opening its doors to visitors, PSA Singapore’s spokesperson said: “The maritime sector is the backbone of Singapore’s trade and economy, one of the key pillars that fuel Singapore’s growth.

“As a maritime leader, we believe that through our collaboration with My Community, we can tell the PSA story to more people and also bring the public closer to Singapore’s port.”

For the PSA tour, participants can get a close look at the world’s largest transhipment hub at its public viewing deck, and better appreciate how the port operator is embracing sustainability, digitalisation and smart technologies in the port, logistics and supply chain space at its innovation centre.

Open My Factory tours can be booked at https://mycommunity.org.sg/