PORTFOLIO COMMUNITY RESPONSE

The Youth Factor

By Marc Almagro,
Photography by Chino Sardea
22 Feb 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it unprecedented challenges, some of which demanded close professional attention. Or, in this case, the committed energies and burgeoning talent of group of young students.

There wasn’t a shortage of goodwill during the early days of the circuit breaker. The arteries of the Internet pulsed with it, filling social media with well-wishes and commiseration. In a matter of weeks the whole world shrunk into a small village where people across oceans rekindled acquaintanceship and reminded each other to stay vigilant against a common enemy.

Many businesses shut their doors most without a clue when or if they will reopen. It was difficult to see what was in the horizon given the blanketing bleakness. Despite this, some pursuits saw unhampered or even brisk business, particularly those that have been forerunners of digitalization and working remotely in fields that were suddenly in demand.

 There were also those who took advantage of the situation, weaving business interests into the confusion, sugar-coating naked sales pitches and merchandise-hawking with sympathy. And why not? As businesses crumbled and the new order still to reveal itself, some of the old rules proved wanting. On the whole, however, faced with a threat that saw no abatement, everyone tried their best to cope, recalibrating their options and pivoting their operations in the direction of emerging opportunities. 

Against this background, new challenges began to develop, some unprecedented, others simply exacerbated by the situation.

  • NEW PROBLEMS ARISE
  • SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION
  • A CLEAR, FIRM OBJECTIVE
  • GETTING THE WORD OUT
  • A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

New Problems Arise

With the suspension of normal business and social activities throughout the circuit breaker, many businesses and individuals were unable to fulfil their contract obligations, thus creating a major problem for all parties involved, says Anders Seah, founder of COV-AID, a team of dedicated law students from the National University of Singapore (NUS) that seeks to provide layman-accessible legal information on a single online platform, www.nus-covaid.com.   

Restrictions on social gatherings, for instance, cites co-founder Mark Tang, have led to the cancellation of events that serve as a primary income stream for the events and tourism industry. Responding to the problem, the Singapore government introduced the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, an important legislation that grants temporary relief measures to parties of certain contracts who are unable to fulfil their contractual obligations due to COVID-19, Tang points out. 

Many SME tenants faced huge difficulty in meeting their rental obligations due to COVID-19 and the social distancing laws, Seah points out. “Under normal circumstances, a failure to pay rent could lead to negative consequences such as late payment fees and even eviction.” To address this, the government launched the Rental Relief Framework which seeks to co-share rental obligations between the government, landlords and SME tenants, he adds. 

Another challenge was the difficulty among laymen to understand the various COVID laws that were being passed. This can be attributed to the extensive use of legal jargon, an inevitable consequence or by-product of legislation, Seah continues. “This problem became particularly pronounced given the significant number of COVID-19 laws that were being passed in a short span of time. Individuals and businesses struggle – and have struggled – in comprehending and keeping tabs with the new laws.”

“COV-AID hosts different information on one single platform, thus minimizing the need to scour through different websites for information.”
  • NEW PROBLEMS ARISE
  • SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION
  • A CLEAR, FIRM OBJECTIVE
  • GETTING THE WORD OUT
  • A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

Single Platform Solution

Resources are available to businesses and individuals seeking legal information and counsel. Foremost among these is the Ministry of Law’s website, which contains detailed elaborations of the many intricacies of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020, notes Seah. The Ministry of Law has also created several useful infographics, he adds. 

Other sources comprise Legal Clinics conducted by Community Centers and the Law Society Pro Bono Services which, to Seah’s knowledge, have been fielding questions and dispensing legal information regarding the new COVID-19 laws, the available grants and reliefs for affected parties, as well as the issues pertaining to contractual liabilities arising from COVID-19. 

 

“Having all COVID-related legal information on a single platform allows the legal clinics to sieve out truly important matters which requires a lawyer’s aid.”

The resources provided by the Ministry of Law, the Law Society, and the Community Centers fulfil the requirements for public information. Meanwhile, COV-AID has found a niche in the midst of all these by augmenting available resources. “We recognize that even in our limited capacities as students, we could do more for the community. We felt that the information available pertaining to the new laws could be more reader-friendly and concise,” Tang surmises. 

To this end, COV-AID decided to host all the different information on one single platform, thus minimizing the need to scour through different websites for information. “Moreover, having all COVID-related legal information on a single platform allows the legal clinics to sieve out truly important matters which requires a lawyer’s aid. Thus, COV-AID was incepted with these motivations in mind,” he concludes. 

  • NEW PROBLEMS ARISE
  • SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION
  • A CLEAR, FIRM OBJECTIVE
  • GETTING THE WORD OUT
  • A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

A Clear, Firm Objective

“Our objective is to give back to society by helping as many people as we can. This has not changed since Day 1,” Tang clarifies. This raison d'être has solidified further over the past few months as the group realized that COV-AID could not sufficiently reach out to grassroot groups. To that end, they started approaching Community Centers and People’s Association, in hopes that our resource would be shared for the benefit of those who need it. 

“Pro-bono aid comes in various forms, and is not limited to the provision of legal advice. We decided that we can best provide aid to the community in these precarious times by operating as a one-stop shop for all COVID-related information pertaining to the laws that are being passed,” Tang points out. “Moreover, we realized the educative function that COV-AID can have in elucidating how COVID-19 has affected the different areas of law.” 

To that end, COV-AID has put up two very useful sections. The first is Academics on Pandemics, which offers thought pieces by NUS Law Professors and the Singapore Judiciary, and the second is Conversations with Lawyers, which provides legal insights by leading lawyers on COVID-19’s impact on their areas of expertise. 

“These areas include tax law, employment law, family law, private equity and importantly, mental health. Hence, this was another avenue that we thought could be beneficial, especially for those with an interest in the law,” Tang adds. “When all is said and done, I hope we can then say with great humility, that indeed we have given and not counted the cost.” 

Seah expresses gratitude to the lawyers who have been “so obliging in taking time off their busy schedules to contribute to our little initiative”. COV-AID, he underscores, “is an amalgamation of the efforts of students, professors and lawyers – this is our attempt at giving back to society in these precarious times”.

  • NEW PROBLEMS ARISE
  • SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION
  • A CLEAR, FIRM OBJECTIVE
  • GETTING THE WORD OUT
  • A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

Getting the Word Out

“We have received many questions from the public to date. Where it involves the provision of legal advice, we have been fortunate to receive the pro-bono aid of the Law Society Pro Bono Services and our own lawyers who have contributed to COV-AID,” Seah reports proudly. “Every pro-bono project has to be approved by first NUS Law, and then the Singapore Institute of Legal Education. After gaining the requisite approval, we got cracking. 

“After much toiling, we launched COV-AID on Singapore’s National Day (2020), and announced the (it on) social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.” Subsequently, The Straits Times and The Ministry of Law picked up their story, providing additional inroads to reach a broader audience. “Importantly, NUS Law and NUS at large has been very supportive of COV-AID, and have provided us with good coverage within the Institution as well,” Seah affirms.

The group’s system for dispensing these range of ‘legal services’ is hosted on one single online platform, incepted, designed, managed and maintained by member Cheyenne Lim. “Without her talents, COV-AID would never have been able to take off,” underlines Tang.  

“We also have a very passionate Publicity Team, headed by Bryan Foo, that manages all our social media accounts. Every week the publicity team posts infographics and short video clips of the articles on the COV-AID website or the interviews under ‘Conversations with Lawyers’ series,” he adds.

“We are keenly aware that as an online platform, COV-AID’s efficacy is entirely contingent on outreach and publicity. Simply put, COV-AID lives and dies on publicity alone. Recently, we have been doubling down on our grassroots efforts and have reached out to many Community Centres and the People’s Association. Hopefully, more and more people will be able to benefit from COV-AID as a legal resource,” says Seah. 

  • NEW PROBLEMS ARISE
  • SINGLE PLATFORM SOLUTION
  • A CLEAR, FIRM OBJECTIVE
  • GETTING THE WORD OUT
  • A MEASURE OF SUCCESS

A Measure of Success

“The primary objective of COV-AID has always been to provide greater understanding and awareness of the COVID-19 laws, and the various legal repercussions arising from COVID-19,” Seah emphasizes. “In other words, there is no tangible way to measure how much better the public understands the COVID-19 laws as it relates to them personally.”

However, the team is confident that their effort has fulfilled their objective. “With over 14,000 visits to the website, and a daily traffic peaking at 1,046 visitors, we know that many Singaporeans have not only heard of the website, but (have) also used it as a platform to assist them in navigating the many COVID-19 laws. In addition, we have made reaching out to as many people as possible our main priorities,” Tang beams. “We are quite happy with the way things turned out, as creating a website from scratch and getting it off the ground requires a lot of strategic publicity. The product of our hard work in getting the useful content to as many people as possible paid off immensely, as now COVAID has been recognized with reputable news coverages.” 

Seah reveals that many people have contacted them personally – “with up to 10 different questions a day during the peak of the pandemic” – seeking help with their legal problems, largely about contractual issues that have arisen in light of COVID-19. “Although we were not allowed to give legal advice, there was still a lot we could do to help these people by explaining the various relevant laws and directing them to where they may seek further clarification…. 

“With Singaporeans concerned about how the government could assist their businesses during the pandemic, COV-AID decided to tackle the problem by attempting to ‘plug’ the informational gap more proactively by setting up a dedicated team to answer questions.”

Interestingly, the group has also noticed that most people visited their site for the interviews and videos featured under Conversations with Lawyers. “It became apparent to us that Singaporeans were also interested in how the legal fraternity saw the pandemic, along with the legal repercussions for the future in different sectors. Our website has dedicated a whole page to collating and presenting cutting edge journal entries and interviews with Singapore’s foremost authorities in their respective legal fields, along with building an extensive library of three-minute snippets of those interviews that the layman can easily digest,” notes Tang.

“Looking back, building a project like this from the ground up can have no better end result than what we have achieved. Although we try not to reduce the amount of help we provide for the community to mere numbers, we can see through the flow of web traffic that there is still a steady stream of people who need help navigating COVID-19 laws in Singapore. That is also why, looking forward, our site will always be up and running to help those who need it tomorrow, next week and for the many months to come,” Seah says.

COV-AID offers one-stop legal information and useful links to legal services on www.nus-covaid.com.  

“With over 14,000 visits, and a daily traffic peaking at 1,046 visitors, we know that many Singaporeans have heard of the website and have used it as a platform to help them navigate COVID-19 laws.”