http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090427-137721.html
Tue, Apr 28, 2009
The Straits Times
They once slept on the streets
[Photo: (From left) Tan Swee Hoon,47,Matthew Sz,12,Elaine Sz,13 and Sz Chin Voon,47.]
By Yen Feng
MATTHEW Sz, 12, thinks himself the luckiest kid in the world.
The West View Primary 6 pupil has an endless supply of Doraemon comics from the library and he gets to sleep on the living room sofa at night - all by himself.
His parents, older sister and two cousins are not so lucky.
They sleep huddled below him, a row of five bodies sharing three pillows, two blankets and one cold floor - that of a relative's three-room flat in Yishun.
But even that is an improvement. For half of last year, the Sz family scoured public parks in Yishun, Woodlands and Jurong East for places to spend their nights.
They slept on park benches, at bus stops, under shelters and in the open.
Last February, Matthew's father, Mr Sz Chin Voon, lost his five-room Yishun flat after failing to make the mortgage payments following his retrenchment in 2007. By that time, he had also run out of savings.
So for the next six months, he and his wife, Madam Tan Swee Hoon, 47, and the rest of the family wandered the streets.
During that time, Matthew and his sister Elaine Sz, 13, dropped out of school. So did their two cousins, who have been Mr Sz's wards for eight years in the absence of his sister-in-law.
Said Mr Sz: 'We had no money to buy food, how to pay for school?'
The family ate out of styrofoam boxes, packed with leftover food given by old friends at coffee shops. They also sneaked into coffee shop toilets to wash up.
The family's living conditions have since improved.
All four children now attend school regularly, and their daily expenses are subsidised by various welfare programmes.
The family receives rations from the Singapore Children's Society's Family Service Centre in Yishun. School fees are paid for under the Ministry of Education's financial assistance plans, and The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund provides all four children - aged between 12 and 15 - with money for food during recess.
Meanwhile, Mr Sz has found work as a part-time coffee shop assistant, taking shifts when the full-time workers go on their breaks. He earns about $1,200 a month. His wife works two hours a day selling snacks, earning $300 a month.
Since last year, a case worker from the Yishun Family Service Centre has been trying to find a new home for the family. The children have been offered temporary shelter in a children's home, but Mr Sz refused, saying he wants the family to stay together.
'I can't be away from my kids,' he said. 'They've already been through so much.' He is now waiting for the Housing Board to allocate a rental flat to them.
Tue, Apr 28, 2009
The Straits Times
They once slept on the streets
[Photo: (From left) Tan Swee Hoon,47,Matthew Sz,12,Elaine Sz,13 and Sz Chin Voon,47.]
By Yen Feng
MATTHEW Sz, 12, thinks himself the luckiest kid in the world.
The West View Primary 6 pupil has an endless supply of Doraemon comics from the library and he gets to sleep on the living room sofa at night - all by himself.
His parents, older sister and two cousins are not so lucky.
They sleep huddled below him, a row of five bodies sharing three pillows, two blankets and one cold floor - that of a relative's three-room flat in Yishun.
But even that is an improvement. For half of last year, the Sz family scoured public parks in Yishun, Woodlands and Jurong East for places to spend their nights.
They slept on park benches, at bus stops, under shelters and in the open.
Last February, Matthew's father, Mr Sz Chin Voon, lost his five-room Yishun flat after failing to make the mortgage payments following his retrenchment in 2007. By that time, he had also run out of savings.
So for the next six months, he and his wife, Madam Tan Swee Hoon, 47, and the rest of the family wandered the streets.
During that time, Matthew and his sister Elaine Sz, 13, dropped out of school. So did their two cousins, who have been Mr Sz's wards for eight years in the absence of his sister-in-law.
Said Mr Sz: 'We had no money to buy food, how to pay for school?'
The family ate out of styrofoam boxes, packed with leftover food given by old friends at coffee shops. They also sneaked into coffee shop toilets to wash up.
The family's living conditions have since improved.
All four children now attend school regularly, and their daily expenses are subsidised by various welfare programmes.
The family receives rations from the Singapore Children's Society's Family Service Centre in Yishun. School fees are paid for under the Ministry of Education's financial assistance plans, and The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund provides all four children - aged between 12 and 15 - with money for food during recess.
Meanwhile, Mr Sz has found work as a part-time coffee shop assistant, taking shifts when the full-time workers go on their breaks. He earns about $1,200 a month. His wife works two hours a day selling snacks, earning $300 a month.
Since last year, a case worker from the Yishun Family Service Centre has been trying to find a new home for the family. The children have been offered temporary shelter in a children's home, but Mr Sz refused, saying he wants the family to stay together.
'I can't be away from my kids,' he said. 'They've already been through so much.' He is now waiting for the Housing Board to allocate a rental flat to them.
