S'pore domestic helper works 14 years, saves enough to build dream house, send siblings to college

Lots of hard work and sacrifice.

Mandy How | October 06, 2018, 01:24 PM

Foreign domestic helpers in Singapore don't have the easiest jobs.

But a good run working here as a domestic helper, at least for one Ella Kutty Albarece, saw her years of hard work pay off handsomely.

Domestic helper for 14 years

In a post shared to a Facebook group for foreign domestic helpers, Albarece showed pictures of her newly-built home.

Based on her profile, the home appears to be located in the Philippines, where she is from.

She calls it the "fruit of [her] hardship and sacrifice for being domestic helper", after working for 14 years away from her family back in her home country.

[related_story]

And the house looks spacious:

What's remarkable, however, is the fact that the house was built with the money left over from her foreign domestic helper wages after Albarece paid for the college education of her sisters and brothers  (it is not clear if they have been fully or partially paid for).

In a comment on the post, Albarece reveals that she worked in the Middle East for around three years, before spending the next decade or so working in Singapore.

The purpose of sharing these photos, the domestic helper wrote, is to inspire her fellow workers to reach for their dreams.

She also advises them to spend their money wisely on valuable things.

No TV in childhood

Part of Albarece's joy of having her own fully-furnished home perhaps stems from her childhood experience of not having a radio or television set.

She said she would often sneak out to watch her neighbours' television, hiding behind windows or doors to do so.

However, Albarece recounts that they would just shut the door or window when they realised she was watching, and she seldom got to finish an episode.

Which was why, when she got her first pay check from working abroad, she told her mother back in the Philippines to buy a TV -- and to keep the doors and windows opened.

Albarece ends her post on a grateful note, saying she has been blessed with great employers.

Top image from Ella Kutty Albarece's Facebook post