‘My heart is overflowing with love’: Foster mum who had 9 children in her home at one point

SINGAPORE – At her busiest, Madam Sarimah Amat, 58, was taking care of nine children in her five-room flat – her three biological children, two children she was fostering and four of her niece’s children.

The homemaker started fostering in 2012, caring for abused, abandoned or neglected children for a period until they are able to return home.

She said: “My heart is overflowing with love. The best thing we can provide for them is love.”

A childcare teacher until a knee injury made her stop working, Madam Sarimah could not “stay still” and wanted something to occupy her time.

With her background in childcare and her love for children, fostering children was an obvious choice.

Her husband is a 59-year-old safety coordinator, and her three children are now aged between 29 and 33. She also has two grandchildren.

She has fostered six children so far, some for as short as six months.

Two of them are still living with her family – a 17-year-old girl whom Madam Sarimah has cared for since she was three, and a nine-year-old girl she took in as a baby. 

Being a foster parent is not a walk in the park, Madam Sarimah said, but her commitment to give these children a loving and stable home environment keeps her going.

Among the challenges she faced was helping the children to adapt to her family when they first arrived.

She said they can be very affected by what is happening in their biological families, and the foster parents have to see them through their ups and downs.

But she added: “It’s my passion, so I don’t find it a burden. I love them just like my own children.”

She added that she can get help from foster care officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development, such as if she needs advice or respite.

The number of foster parents has more than doubled from 243 in 2013 to 614 in 2023, as the number of children who were placed in foster care grew from 309 in 2013 to 540 in 2023.

Madam Sarimah also raised her niece’s four children and took care of them for almost 10 years until they went home to live with their mother after she was released from jail.

The children were aged between two and nine then, and they were sleeping on the streets before Madam Sarimah took them in to live with her family.

“If I don’t do it, who will? And they will end up in a (children’s) home,” she said. “I didn’t hesitate to take them in, and my husband is very supportive.”

It was a challenge to care for them, as the children skipped school when they were living on the streets, and they found it hard to adapt to school life at first.

Through perseverance on both her part and the children’s, the children have grown up and are doing well in life, she said.

Madam Sarimah is also very active in the community.

In 2014, she started Project Pencil to provide stationery and learning materials to children living in orphanages overseas, after a friend asked her for help.

This has evolved into Project Pencil Singapore, which also involves her neighbours in Yishun.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, she and a group of neighbours banded together to look out for one another. They were spurred to do so when a neighbour, a wheelchair user who lived alone, was found dead after a stench was detected from his flat.

Their ground-up initiative now runs a free tuition programme and silat classes for children from low-income families living in Yishun. It also organises the distribution of unsold fresh fruits and vegetables, and second-hand clothing and appliances, among other things.

She said: “Some of my neighbours have my telephone number, and my ‘hotline’ is open 24 hours. I tell the elderly who live alone to call me if they need help.”

Madam Sarimah can empathise with others in need, as she went through a period of financial hardship in her 30s.

Her husband, who was working as a machine operator, had lost his job and was jobless for two years. Their three children were young then, and Madam Sarimah’s mother was also ill.

To get by, Madam Sarimah sold curry puffs and nasi lemak to places like provision shops. She also sought financial help from the Government.

She said: “I have found my life’s mission by being involved in all these projects. To help the community, to mother all these children.

“What the world needs now is love. Life is not just about ourselves and our families, but also others.”