This 8-Year Old Girl Survives on Potato Chips & Gummies (as here everyday meal)

If I showed you a picture of the Merlion statue, the first thing that may come to mind is how impressive & luxurious Singapore must be,

You can see superhuman structures of the longest infinity pool performing a balancing-act and the #1 rated airport (with a waterfall inside) That was all it took to convince me that this is the perfect nation that every other country must strive to be at, I was wrong.

The first time I was told about this issue it really shifted my world view, I hope to share the same insight & feeling with you in this story.

How Singapore Was Dubbed As “Only for the Rich”

Looking back now, there was this one movie that really set everything into place on what made Singapore where is it now.

The film where sons & daughters from well-enough families celebrate their birthday by firing bazookas, struggled to pick a single outfit to wear, and ex-girlfriends plotting against the leading star, Crazy Rich Asian Movie.

I admit that watching the movie left me speechless but you can’t have a great movie without leaving out some details of reality.

Which then leads us to how this work of fiction painted Singapore in a way as the epitome of achievement whilst stepping aside those who are struggling to get by.

How Fion Met the Struggling 8-Year Old Girl

It all began when Fion, a volunteer for a food insecurity organization, decided to randomly gave food to an 8-year old girl who was running at the corridor.

The girl then replied, “How did you know I was hungry?” And Fion was taken aback hearing this words.

So, how did she ended up like this?

Fion then found out that the father of the child was a security officer earning $2,000 per month Singaporean Dollars (that’s about $1,460 USD)

That doesn’t exactly sound like a bad scenario until we find out that for 3 years most of his salary was spend of paying debts.

It was not just a money problem — health & mental wellbeing come also to play.

Sam, the father, was frequently getting sick and it worsened when he wasn’t concentrate with family issues.

To top this off, the daughter’s upbeat personality didn’t match the father’s quiet background. But the father think it’s best not to tell her daughter about it and lead a somewhat normal life.

Then, he fell into the “debt trap”

On 2016, Sam stopped working.

To continue to survive, he borrowed money in order to pay for the household bills.

And here’s where out story was finally clear, the debt trap is where the father had to borrow money in order to pay back the previous month’s loan.

From the monthly breakdown as shown above, after eliminating all the cost we are only left with $200 SGD (about $147 USD)

This leaves each person in the family only $2 SGD to spend for food every single day.

Financial Assistance Is Also A Struggle,

The daughter was able to receive financial assistance from the Education Ministry, but it is only good for just 1 meal a day.

The funds are not designed for long-term, and Sam struggled to apply since he is $100 over the criteria of the household income $1,900 and below.

What’s next for them,

Sam and his daughter are part of the marginalized community that is often overlooked in an economic-powerhouse country. I’d like to end this with a random comment that sums up my feeling with this story.

Wait, do you love this?

Before I go, if you find this story enjoyable then I'll definitely share more articles like this in the future. If you don't want miss out on future stories, press "subscribe" below.

See you inside Vocal Media.

-Ryan Winterlake