Curiously, why do they come here to study when they don't have
the funds to do so?
====================================================
YISHUN STUDY MAMA DRAMA
Mum says: I don't want your money
Study mama and teen daughter set up home in void deck. Residents
offer help, but...
By Dawn Chia
February 11, 2006
THEIR room walls: Two bedsheets hung together by raffia.
--Pics/KUA CHEE SIONG
Their door: An upturned table.
Their home: The void deck of a Yishun HDB block.
For two nights, this space was home to a China study mama and her
teenage daughter.
The daughter claimed they didn't have enough money to pay the rent
and the landlord had asked them to leave the unit in the same
block.
The 13-year-old looked worn out. (See report on next page).
We are not naming the pair to spare the student
embarrassment.
Ask the mother if they need help and you get a terse reply.
'I don't need money. If you want to, just find me a job,' she said
coldly.
Her pride surprised concerned residents in Block 283 at Yishun Ave
6, many of whom have, asked if they could help.
The 45-year-old study mama firmly declined their offers.
She was seen setting up house in the void deck on Monday after
moving her belongings from a second-floor unit where she used to
rent a room.
A TV set, two large suitcases, a small bookshelf and piles of
clothes lined the sides of a single-sized mattress.
Two toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste sat snugly in a plastic
mug. A rectangular-shaped coffee-table turned on its side
functioned as the door to their 'room'.
Two basins of tap water sat untouched on a bench just two steps
away - that was their water for drinking and also for washing
up.
Residents and curious passers-by have peeked over the 1.2m-high
'walls', but that didn't bother the woman one bit.
She either continued snoozing or reading a book, oblivious of the
curious stares.
The slim, long-haired woman told The New Paper in Mandarin: 'It's
not like I've been here for a month - it's just been two
nights.
'I know it's unsightly to see us staying here, but we're not doing
anything wrong, and we have no other choice.'
She did not want to say why she moved out, saying only that she
'had a disagreement' with her landlord and felt she couldn't stay
there any more.
Her daughter later said they had not been paying rent for three
months.
The mother has been renting a room for $300 a month from this
landlord for about six to eight months.
The safety and well-being of her daughter living in the void deck
was not a concern, she said.
S'PORE IS SAFE
She said: 'There's nothing to worry about - Singapore is a safe
place.
'I wouldn't let my daughter sleep in the open if it's dangerous.
Besides, nothing has happened so far.'
She said she was from Liao Ling province and that she had come to
Singapore about three years ago in search of a better life.
She claimed that she had been looking for a job for 'a very long
time', but wasn't able to find a satisfactory one.
Over the years, their daily expenses have eaten into her savings.
Money which she had borrowed from her relatives to supplement her
savings was soon depleted.
She lamented: 'How can I approach friends or family for help?
'If I tell them that I have no money, do you think they will
believe me? They have their own problems.'
