Background
She is 29 years old and married but has been separated since she came to work in Singapore. She has one child now 6 years of age. She is from Central Philippines where her father works as an electrician. She is 2nd among 5 children. She has a secondary education (10 years) and speaks English quite well, better than average.

Employment History

1. The first time she worked abroad was from Aug 06 to Nov 06. Her duties were cooking, cleaning and laundry. Madam stayed at home and most of the time attended to the needs of her 2 children aged 7 and 9. However, whenever she went out, she left care of the children to Elsie. She also washed the family car. She was new then and like most domestic workers in Singapore, was too slow for her employer's liking.
2. Her next employer, also a local Chinese, did not find her slow, even though her extended family of 10 plus 2 young grandchildren who (who spent part of the day in the family home, a 5-room bungalow with a big garden. Elsie was the only maid there. Granny did the marketing and cooking with Elsie helping her. Otherwise Elsie pretty much did what was to be done:
   • keeping the house neat and tidy
   • washing and ironing for 12 persons (including the two grandchildren)
   • Elsie got along well with Granny and helped her when she potters about in the garden
   • washing 3 cars
   Elsie found the going heavy and after 13 months threw in the towel and went home.
3. She returned to Singapore to work for Mr Chia, a local Chinese who family included two teen-aged children. The family lived in a bungalow with 4 bedrooms and a basement in s small garden. Elsie was one of two domestic helpers. Elsie shared housekeeping duties with her colleague and things were working well. But she had to leave when her brother, a fisherman, died in a storm.
4. In December 2008 she came to work for a local Chinese family of 3, including one child, a boy, who was 3 months old when Elsie started. Madam is working and leaves care of her son, and the housekeeping chores (cooking, cleaning and laundry/ironing) to Elsie. In addition Elsie washed two cars. Elsie would like to transfer to a new family when her contract expires in November (or October) 2010.

Childcare
Elsie took care of her son until he was two years old before she came to work in Singapore to supplement her husband's meagre income as a farmer. As a paid childminder she has cared for or helped to care for 6 children. The youngest of these was 3 months old (Job 4) and the other 5 aged 6 up to 11.

Elsie is quite capable of taking care of a newborn and if asked to, is willing to sleep with a newborn and do the night feeding. She is quite familiar with the various aspects of care of a baby/infant such as preparing the formula, wash and sterilise the feeding bottles, bath the baby, prepare baby's first solid food (porridge with carrots or brocoli, scallop, anchovy, pork bones, etc).

Cooking
As a housewife, before coming to work in Singapore, Elsie cooked Filipino food for her family. In her current situation, Elsie cooks all the meals except on weekends when the family (and Elsie) eat out. In the other 3 situations, she helped out with the cooking.

Elsie learnt her cooking first by helping Granny cook (Job 2) and from her current employer. In addition, she also used a recipe book to learn new dishes.

Personality
Elsie is neat and tidy, neat in appearance. She speaks English quite well. She has a good memory and is able to list her previous jobs with accuracy, she is credible.

Granny & Grampa Granny 2 grandchildren who stay with Granny when not in school Sharon Granny's dil, Hubby (Granny's son) 11-yr boy Single woman - Sir's sister Sir's Bro (Johnny) and Dianne (his wife) and 2 children: 6, 8

She first worked for Sharon, from Nov 06 to Dec 07 Her duties were childcare cooking laundry cleaning wash car. Her employer had children whose ages were 6 7.