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Madam Indranee has

been taking in children
for the past 32 years
BY MELISSA SIM
She’s foster
AFTER Madam Indranee Nadisen’s own
brood – five boys and a girl – started go-
ing to school, she became bored at home,
so she took in foster children.
Looking after these children – mostly
abandoned or from families who were un-
able to provide for them – became her
mum to 43
life’s work over the next 32 years.
With 43 children having passed
through her hands, she holds the record
under the Fostering Scheme here.
Madam Indranee, who herself was
adopted by an Indian family when she
was a baby, finally called it a day as a fos-
ter mum in July because of persistent
shoulder problems.
Yesterday, she was thanked for her
contributions at a party organised by the
Ministry for Community Development,
Youth and Sports (MCYS).
A visibly moved MCYS Minister Vivi-
an Balakrishnan, his voice trembling,
thanked Madam Indranee for the love she
Madam Indranee Nadisen, 68, with one of her foster children. She holds the record under the Fostering Scheme here and was thanked for her contributions by MCYS yesterday . ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
had shown the children she took in. He al-
so suggested that she be named an honor-
쏆 are still in touch with her. One is an Indi- deal with the heartache of these partings, But her four-room flat in Lorong Ah
ary foster mother. an girl, now 31, whom Madam Indranee and cried each time a child was taken Soo has been quiet in the last two
The 68-year-old grandmother of nine LOVE FOR CHILDREN and her retired civil servant husband Am- away. months, and she has not quite figured out
is sad that she has to stop doing some- brose Dorai, 70, have adopted because She sometimes had to lie to the child what to do with her time.
thing that she loves. they have only one biological daughter. when the adoptive parents turned up, say- “After I watch TV, I rearrange the
Referring to her problem shoulder, she
“If not for my health, I The other foster child still lives with ing she had to go to the toilet so that the clothes in the cupboard or take out all the
said as tears welled in her eyes: “If not would carry on. I love the couple. Ms Eunice Tung, 23, who child would let go of her. cups and rearrange those. I am very
for my health, I would carry on. I love children. When the child works for her uncle’s electrical company, “From the toilet, I would hear the bored,” she said.
children. chose to continue living with Madam In- child screaming for me and my heart MCYS’ Fostering Scheme, in place
“When the child runs to me, I cannot
runs to me, I cannot carry dranee instead of her own relatives after would hurt,” she said. “The love and since 1956, has 184 foster parents caring
carry him now. It is not nice to offend him now. It is not nice to her release from the fostering scheme up- bonding is there. They are like family.” for 300 children. The ministry says more
foster families are still needed.
Her third son, Father Richards Ambro-
them like that.” offend them like that.” on turning 18.
se, 44, said his mother treated all the chil- The scheme has given love and com-
Close as she is to her wards, she pre- “I told her she has relations, but she dren under her roof equally. fort to more than 5,000 children and
fers to cut ties cleanly when they leave Madam Indranee told the officer she wanted to stay. It was “There was no bigger piece of chicken teens in the last half-century.
her home, sometimes to return to their very touching,” said Madam Indranee, for her own children,” he said. Madam Indranee, making a pitch for
parents or to live with adoptive parents. “There was no bigger piece who was presented the Friend of MCYS Madam Indranee added that if there becoming a foster parent, said: “Some-
“I do not want to keep in touch. If they of chicken for her own Award in 2001 and the Reader’s Digest In- were sweets, the foster children got to times when you play and laugh with the
are back with their parents or if they have children.” spiring Asians Award in 2003. choose first. She would explain to her children, all your troubles and worries fly
a proper home, then I am happy for The rest of her foster children end own children that the foster children had away. If you have the time, you should do
them,” she said. Father Richards Ambrose their stay after around two years. no parents and therefore needed more it.”
Two of her foster children, however, Madam Indranee has never learnt to love. simlinoi@sph.com.sg