[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/#NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/","headline":"International Women\u2019s Day: The strength of an elderly cardboard collector","name":"International Women\u2019s Day: The strength of an elderly cardboard collector","description":"Seventy-four-year-old Madam Ooi Ah Yang has been collecting cardboard waste for more than half her life.\u00a0 Every day, she makes a 45-minute-walk under the blazing, afternoon sun, pushing a trolley with folded cardboard pieces stacked as high as her petite frame, to the factory to sell the paper scrap she has painstakingly picked up in […]","datePublished":"2021-03-12","dateModified":"2022-04-15","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Ming%20En%20Liew\/#Person","name":"Ming En Liew","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/author\/Ming%20En%20Liew\/","identifier":132,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe7a89455a989038349633329a6e4ad6299388f5e1e3ea83c28126090b2314f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8fe7a89455a989038349633329a6e4ad6299388f5e1e3ea83c28126090b2314f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TheHomeGround Asia","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/photo_2021-07-22-222533.jpeg","width":640,"height":640}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1615543158324_1280X626_282029.png","url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/wp-content\/uploads\/1615543158324_1280X626_282029.png","height":626,"width":1280},"url":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/","commentCount":"3","comment":[{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/#Comment1","dateCreated":"2026-05-01 23:15:09","description":"You've made a complex topic simple.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"world live tv online","url":"https:\/\/www.bing.co.uk\/news\/apiclick.aspx?aid&ref=FexRss&url=https:\/\/www.oneotv.com\/"}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/#Comment2","dateCreated":"2026-04-28 00:13:38","description":"I learned something new today.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Salomon ski shoes","url":"https:\/\/globalshoepalace.com\/product-category\/men\/Salomon-Men-Shoes"}},{"@type":"Comment","@id":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/#Comment3","dateCreated":"2026-04-25 09:55:59","description":"Super insightful and fresh perspective.","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Salomon ladies shoes","url":"https:\/\/globalshoepalace.com\/product-category\/women\/Salomon-Women-Shoes"}}],"about":["Community","Local","Sex & Gender","Singapore"],"wordCount":1711,"articleBody":"Seventy-four-year-old Madam Ooi Ah Yang has been collecting cardboard waste for more than half her life.\u00a0Every day, she makes a 45-minute-walk under the blazing, afternoon sun, pushing a trolley with folded cardboard pieces stacked as high as her petite frame, to the factory to sell the paper scrap she has painstakingly picked up in the neighbourhood.\u00a0Still, the lady maintains a cheerful disposition, gleefully comparing her tanned skin to mine.Even though she has lived a tough life, Mdm Ooi’s strength of character is admirable. Unhindered by an ailing knee or old age, Mdm Ooi plods on with impressive tenacity, doing what is necessary to support herself and her three siblings.NOTE: This interview was edited for clarity and length, and has been translated from Mandarin.\u00a0READ: International Women’s Day: Abused but UnbeatenMdm Ooi Ah Yang: I have been collecting cardboard for over 40 years, from when I was young until now. It\u2019s a tough job. In the past, we would wait for the lorry to come by and collect the cardboard, but we never knew whether it would show up that day. If it doesn\u2019t come, I wouldn\u2019t know where to keep the collected cardboard. If I leave the cardboard here [at the corridor outside her house], it will be a fire hazard. I spent so much trouble collecting the cardboard, if it were to all be lost, I won\u2019t be able to sell it for any money. It is very upsetting.Mdm Ooi at the corridor outside her home with the cardboard she has collected.I collect cardboard because my mum was poor, and my family is now very poor. They relied on me to go out and work, it was a tough life. I had a colleague who saw that I was struggling, so she recommended me for a job at the hostels in the National University of Singapore (NUS). I worked there for 28 years and retired three years ago. At the dormitories, the students were very nice but the office staff would bully me. Because I needed the money, I stayed on for 28 years, until I turned 70.\u00a0Collecting cardboard now, I don\u2019t make much money. But I still need to continue to sell it. That\u2019s where I will be going later this afternoon, to sell the cardboard.\u00a0TheHomeGround: Do you make the trip to collect cardboard and sell them every day?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: Now, my life is actually a little bit better. I rely on others to give me cardboard. The store owners I frequent will often leave me cardboard. I had gained a little bit of recognition after being featured in the media, so people will help me now.\u00a0Mdm Ooi relies on stall owners who leave their cardboard waste out for her to collect.Sometimes, students from universities and polytechnics will come and look for me after seeing me on Facebook. They want to experience what it is like to collect cardboard for a living. There is one student from Nanyang Technological University that is going to come down in mid-March and accompany me to collect cardboard for one day. He asked me if collecting cardboard is tough. I told him that after he does it for one day, he will be scared and won\u2019t want to do it anymore. It\u2019s a hard job, you don\u2019t earn much. But life is such.\u00a0THG: Do you have any dependents relying on you?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: Yes, my older brother. I also have a good-for-nothing younger brother, which is why I have to work so hard, to take care of my family.\u00a0My older brother recently fell down, so he\u2019s now in the hospital. Currently, the bone in his thigh has healed, but he still requires physiotherapy to learn how to walk again.\u00a0I will also need to go for surgery in May. My meniscus has worn down due to old age, so I will require surgery to repair it. The doctor told me that if I don\u2019t have surgery, I may not be able to walk after two to three years.\u00a0READ: International Women’s Day: Single Motherhood A Chance to Turn Her Life AroundTHG: Does your knee hurt now when you are walking?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: It\u2019s not so bad. The pain has reduced since I started drinking milk every morning. Before that, it would hurt more. I am still healthy now, I thank Buddha for blessing me with a healthy body. Other than my knee, everything else is fine. Since I am still healthy, I can continue working. I will continue working until the day I am unable to anymore. Maybe, by that time, I will have departed this world.\u00a0THG: Indeed, staying healthy is definitely the most important. Besides the pain in your leg, do you face any challenges when you are collecting cardboard?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: Sometimes, people will steal the cardboard that I have selected, and sell them! It makes me really mad. I usually collect cardboard at the market. There are some stall owners who will leave their cardboard for me. I will leave them in a pile because there\u2019s too much for me to manage in one go, but sometimes, people will try to steal them.There are times when others will attempt to steal the cardboard she has painstakingly collected, but she is not afraid to speak up for herself.I will get angry and tell them that the cardboard is mine. I will scold them. After that, they will tell me that I am a bad person who is always picking a fight with others. But these cardboard pieces are the ones that I have painstakingly collected, if someone is taking away my hard work, I will definitely be angry, right? After all, I rely on this to feed myself. When I scold them, I feel a little bit better.For those who think I am a bad person, did they consider that they might be one too? They didn\u2019t consider me, they just think that if I leave the cardboard pieces there temporarily, they are free to take it. They didn\u2019t think about the hard work that goes into collecting it, only for them to take it away. Of course I will be angry. I think anyone else in my situation will be angry too.THG: Is there anyone who helps you out as well?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: Since my circumstances are relatively poorer, there are people who will try to help me. They tell me, \u2018Auntie, I give you cardboard.\u2019 So I will just collect from them. In return, I will sometimes help them take out their trash, and they will be very willing to give me their cardboard. We help each other.\u00a0READ: International Women’s Day: Queer, Proud and UnstoppableTHG: Can you tell me more about your day? Where do you deliver the cardboard to after you collect it?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: After I collect the cardboard, I will pack them nicely then push it to the factory to sell. Since my leg hurts now, I walk a little slower. The journey there takes me about 45 minutes one-way. I will make the trip down every afternoon. Selling the cardboard allows me to earn three to four dollars, or up to five dollars on good days, but it is not guaranteed.\u00a0Every afternoon, Mdm Ooi will make the 45-minute walk to the factory to sell the cardboard pieces.Sometimes, when people give me more cardboard, I can make more. Sometimes, I will meet some familiar faces, and they will give me some money to help out. I am very thankful for that, I am very blessed. Sometimes, I will bump into volunteers from charity organisations that help me and they will offer me a meal. But I tell them it\u2019s okay, because the organisations provide us with food. Happy People Helping People also comes down once a month to drop off some household necessities. This way, our lives are a little bit easier.THG: Are there any stereotypes relating to your job that you wish to address?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: There are people who will be prejudiced against me. People these days, nobody wants to collect cardboard, right? Sometimes kids will say I am a karang guni (a rag-and-bone man), I will tell them I am not a karang guni, I only collect cardboard. Sometimes the stall owners I collect cardboard from, they will also look down on me.READ: International Women’s Day: Paving the Way for Sex Workers\u2019 RightsTHG: Is there anything you wish to say to these people who look down on you?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: Don\u2019t look down on me. I am poor. I do this [collect cardboard] so that I can have a little bit more freedom and earn a little bit of money for myself. When I feel up to it, I will collect more cardboard; when I am tired, I collect less. It is just for me to have a little bit more freedom.\u00a0She makes four to five dollars a day selling cardboard waste.I know people will see me in a different light, even children. Their parents don\u2019t understand, they don\u2019t explain to the children that actually, what we do is very tough.THG: In light of International Women\u2019s Day, what are your hopes for the women of Singapore?\u00a0Mdm Ooi: I hope that they will be strong. Women these days are not bad. The women born today have lives a bit easier. They work hard, and they don\u2019t do jobs that will result in others looking down on them as the \u2018weaker sex\u2019. They are actually very strong.\u00a0For myself, I don\u2019t think I am strong. I didn\u2019t have a choice [but to do this job]. I rely on it to eat, so I have no choice but to work. However much I can work, I work. Later, I will be pushing my trolley down to the factory to sell the cardboard. After that, I will come home and watch television. My days pass like this.\u00a0Join the conversations on THG’s Facebook and Instagram, and get the latest updates via Telegram."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Destinations","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Singapore","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/\/singapore\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"International Women\u2019s Day: The strength of an elderly cardboard collector","item":"https:\/\/thehomeground.asia\/destinations\/singapore\/international-womens-day-the-strength-of-an-elderly-cardboard-collector\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]