Filipino maid (domestic worker) Evelyn Delgado is a *
caregiver, cook and a housekeeper too. After almost 5 years in
Singapore working for the same family, she is now available for transfer.
* A caregiver here is one who cares
for an elderly/invalid
Background
From Mindanao (2 days and 3 night by ferry, half an hour by air), she is 34
years old and a mother of one daughter 8 years of age. She is now separated
from her husband and is the sole provider for her daughter. Her late father
used to be a trcuck driver. He died while she was an infant. She is the
elder of two children.
Although her mother was poor, Evelyn managed to get a college education; she
was on scholarship from secondary level. She graduated with a
Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Technology.
Although Evelyn's mother was a housewife, she managed to work part-time to
scrape enough to provide for the family: Mommy and 2 daughters, Evelyn and
sister Rachel. Both the daughters helped out in their mother's enterprise:
selling homemade cakes, raising livestock (pigs, chicken) in their compound.
Employment History
- In the Philippines she worked for
- Pioneer Agricultural Technology Inc for 3 years from 1998 to 2001
(in Mindanao).
- She left to work in Manila for the National Statistics Office for
one year.
- In Singapore she began working for Pearl (a local Chinese woman) and her
family of 5 including 3 children and Grandpa - who has been bedridden for
the past 10 years. Now only two children are living with Madam; one having
got married and lives with her own nucleus family.
Evelyn's duties are cooking, cleaning, laundry, taking care of Grandpa and
gardening (i.e. mowing the lawn, watering the plants and tidying up here and
there).
Cooking
She used to cook at home in the Philippines as her mother was busy with her
small business. Evelyn also helped her mother make the cakes for sale. Now
in Singapore, after learning from Madam, Evelyn has been cooking for her
Chinese host family soon after she started working for them. Some of the
dishes Evelyn is familiar with are:
- Chicken: soup, fried with mushroom, stewed chicken (no curry)
- Pork: soup, stewed with potato, sweet and sour, fried with mushroom
- Fish: fried, steamed (no sweet and sour)
- Vegetable: stir fried (with prawn, pork, dried prawns)
Childcare
Being a mother of an 8-year old, Evelyn is no stranger to childcare.
Actually her mother often helped when she was at home and Evelyn was busy
cooking or attending to other household chore. Evelyn is able to take care
of children, including a newborn. She can prepare baby formula (she
breastfed her own daughter only for 18 months); she knows how to wash and
sterilise the feeding bottles.
Care of the elderly/sick
Evelyn has been helping to care for her current employer's father for the
last 4½ years. The old has been bedridden for the past 10 years.
Personality
Evelyn strikes me as intelligent not only because she was on scholarship but
also because she is able to express herself intelligently. She has a
positive attitude to work: she assisted her mother in all manner of chores,
from household chores to making cakes for sale (and helping out with sales)
and attending to livestock.
