Melaka local council authorities were alerted this week of a mother and her seven-year-old son living inside an abandoned hawker stall.
A news team that was on assignment in the Balai Panjang area when they by chance met the two, who were sleeping inside the stall’s tiny cupboard.
Contacting local assemblyman Allex Seah, the reported the squalid conditions that the two were living in. The boy has since been taken by the Welfare Department to a temporary shelter.
A single parent since the boy’s father was found guilty of theft three years ago, the 33-year-old mother has four other older children who have all been placed under the care of the Welfare Department. Her youngest who was staying with her inside the cupboard is not enrolled in school.
The unnamed woman, who was visibly pregnant, also tested positive for drugs. Melaka’s Anti-Drug Agency has since taken her to a center for rehabilitation.
