Panambarage Jacinta, a Sri Lankan woman in Singapore, was named as the Foreign Domestic Worker of 2020 which is an annual accolade for maids who have made extraordinary contributions to the family they serve.
The Foreign Employment Bureau said the award by the Association of Employment Agencies with a cash price of 2,000 Singapore Dollars was given at a Chinese New Year lunch held early this month at the Holiday Inn Singapore.
The Foreign Domestic Worker of the year is selected based on their extraordinary contribution to the family, the complexity of the job, and the foreign domestic workers commitment to his or her own self-improvement.
Ms Jacintha, a resident of Kuliyapitiya, first arrived in Singapore in 1990 to take care of Mr Lam Yong Sang’s elderly mother and his two daughters: Chen Peng, then 14, and Chen Meng, then 11.
In 2007, she returned to work for the Lam family and played a crucial role in saving the life of Mrs Lam in 2008. She has alerted the family soon after Mrs. Lam showed flu-like symptoms and lost control of her bladder functions, a measure which enabled the family to rush Mrs. Lam to the hospital.
Ms. Jacintha who is 58 has served four generations of Lam family. Meanwhile, Mrs Ranhoti Peggilage Padmaseeli of Sri Lanka who has been with her employer since August 13, 1990, also received a merit award at the ceremony.
