The 15-year-old girl who was living in a stall at the Circuit Road Market for 11 months will go into foster care.
During this period, she will have supervised visits from her 63-year-old father, who rented the stall.
He is currently assisting with investigations relating to the ill-treatment of a child or young person by neglect under the Children and Young Persons Act.
The foster parents will be taking the girl in by the end of May, following her discharge from the hospital.
On Friday (17 May), a spokesperson from the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) confirmed with The Straits Times (ST) that it has found foster parents for the girl.
Source: Lianhe Zaobao
The Ministry will also closely monitor any contact between the girl and her father while she is in foster care.
“In this case, the foster parents must be able to manage a child with developmental needs.”
“This involves working with the foster parents to understand and meet the child’s needs, and providing professional support when required, for example, to manage trauma issues,” the spokesperson added.
They elaborated that once the girl is under the foster parents’ care, the foster care worker and child protection officer in charge of this case will be regularly checking in with the foster family to ensure that she transitions into foster care smoothly.
In early April, the National Environment Agency (NEA) was conducting an inspection of the market when it discovered that the teenage girl had been living at the wet market stall for about 11 months.
It then reported the case to Child Protective Service (CPS), who sent the girl to a hospital for a welfare check-up.
MacPherson MP Tin Pei Ling said at the time that the news “shocked” her, as she visits the market frequently.
She noted that during her last visit, which was during Chinese New Year, she did not notice anything amiss.
After visiting the girl in hospital, Ms Tin shared on social media that she was “coping well”, and was happily showing off new soft toys and a Pokémon game card another patient had given her.
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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao.
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