Life can be unkind !

Our one month old Filipino maid , a young girl , efficient and hardworking joined the family recently ( about a month ).Mum was quite pleased with her and I guess everyone else in the family. She is supposed to work with us for two years and then after that she has a choice of extending or terminating her contract.That was fine and we thought that for the next two years there would be someone to help in the housework and make life easier for the lady of the house. Then from out of the blue....calamity !! she is pregnant and two months onto it.When we heard the news we had to ask her " Now what?".She discussed with the boyfriend and he wanted the baby.That being the case obviously she has to go back.So we proceeded with the arrangement for her to go back to her country.Simple enough ... but then when you think about it there are so many things which will come to mind.We wonder what happens to her aspirations to earn money here? What kind of life is she going to have when she goes back? And what sort of future will the baby have ? Looking at her, I could see that probably she herself is struggling with these thoughts.Imagine having to bring up a family with no financial security, imagine thoughts going through your mind as to whether the guy concerned is really going to look after her and imagine what she is thinking about the baby's future.I'm sure that she is troubled and hopefully she can figure out some means of getting by in life after this. Having a baby is a woman's privilege and we would in no way ask her "How Come ?".That is her personal business and she has that right and we as employers have no right to be judge or be moralistic.We can only offer some advice to resolve the problem.As said, the obvious solution is for her to go back and have the baby but surely when you think about it that perhaps is just the beginning of the problem, At least with us she is part of the family, she eats what we eat and she does not have to worry about the basics of livelihood.Even then when we look at the life of a maid you wonder what sort of life they have to endure.Day in day out work and perhaps the only thing to look forward to is to make enough money to go home and hopefully live a better life.There are so many horror stories of maids being ill treated and abused that you begin to wonder how come there are people who can do this kind of things .They are not maids by choice.. merely people who are less fortunate and as such should be seen as people who should be treated with kindness and concern. many of them have to leave their families and children behind and some even with no means of keeping in touch with them .Imagine how they feel ! Compare this with some young girls who are so fortunate and yet not realize how fortunate they are.They lepak, yam cha and when they have free time think of how to spend it with friends doing all sorts of unproductive things.Our maid is only 27 and I'm sure she may want to have a bit of this too but circumstances do not permit her.Which gets one to think ...why is life so unfair ? A question which no one can really answer.