37 years old and married, Melani has no children. Her husband operates a motorised tricycle taxi driver. Melani paid for the tricyle out of her earnings as a domestic worker in Singapore.

Job History
Melani has worked for 11½ years in Singapore as a domestic helper in effect for 2 employers though officially she worked for 4. This apparent contradiction is explained in the job history below.

1. Jul 96 to Feb 97: During this period she worked for Diana M who 3 children, a newborn, a 5- and a 9-year old. Melani's duties were care of the 3 children plus 2 of Madam's nieces aged 6 months and 2 years old during the day. It was a busy household with Granny staying for the day and helping out with care of her grandchildren; an unmarried sister coming for dinner. Melani found her situation hectic and asked to be released, much to her employer's disappointment,
2. She next worked for Sandy T as follows:
   1. From Feb 97 until Apr 02 (or for 5+ years) her nominal employer Mr Chua. The family consisted of 3 children initially, aged 11 month, 6 and 9 years. Two months after Melani started work, Sandy gave birth to a fourth child.
   2. From Apr 02 until Jul 07 (5+ years) Sandy became the employer of record, for financial and personal reasons. At the end of 10+ years, Melani went home for good, or so she thought then.
   3. After an absence of two years, Sandy's elder brother Ah Kow, still single, employed her from Jul 2009. Sandy had moved in with brother Ah Kow with her children. (She had been divorced by then and moved out of their matrimonial home.) The family situation has by this time changed much and Melani is not longer comfortable working for a family under strain.

Cooking
Melani first learned to cook from Sandy's mother and now, after over 10 years working for Sandy and her family, she is a competent cook and counts the following as some of the dishes she is familiar with:

• Pork: sweet and sour, pork rib soup, char siew pork, stewed pork (in soya sauce), stewed pork slices for eating with rice bun (pow), pork with vinegar, steamed pork.
• Fish: steamed fish with chilli, fried fish, sweet and sour fish, steamed fish with vinegar, fish head curry, assam fish
• Chicken: chicken with ginger, chicken curry, fried chicken, roast chicken, herbal chicken soup
• Stir fried vegetables in various combinations with prawns or pork.
• One-dish meals: chicken rice, fried bee hoon, nasi lemak, spaghetti, hokien mee.

Child care
During her first 7 months in Singapore she took care of or helped to take care of 5 children: Madam's own children aged 6 month, 5 and 9 years old; her nieces aged 2 years and 6 months. Granny was present during the day when there were 5 little ones to care for. At night only 3 remained.

She cared for Sandy's 4 children for over 10 years. The youngest was born 2 months after she started, the rest were 11 months, 6 and 9 years. (As time progressed, the older ones became more independent.) Melani got along very well with the children.

Personality
Melani is simply and neatly addressed, unassuming and polite. She is consistent when answering questions about her work situation. Though she had 3 different employers nominally (Employers 2, 3 and 4), in effect they were pretty much the same family.

Melani's spoken English is fairly good and she is able to account for time in Singapore without difficulty.

married but has no children yet. Her father is a and her mother is a . Her husband is a . She has a sec+1 (acctg) education and speaks English fairly well. She has been working for Tan Ah Chua, since Jul 09 to date (30/10/2009). Her duties are childcare cooking laundry cleaning marketing. Her employer has children whose ages are -2m, 11m, 6 and 9. Before that she worked for Tan Siew Hoon from Apr 02 to Jul 07 Her duties were same as above. Her employer has children whose ages are same as above. Her first employer was Chua Hin Lee from Feb 96 to Apr 02 in Rivervale Drive (when still married). Her duties were same as above. Her employer had children whose ages were same as above.

When available: As Soon As Possible

Profile by Karl Tan
Licensed Employment Agent since 1981