Mothers in Rwanda May Start Bringing Babies to Office

A care giver serves a child food

Three Rwandan ladies have come up with a day care program where mothers would stay with their babies at workplace.

Their justification is that, women are more present in Rwandan workforce and childcare needs have to be taken into consideration, to decrease anxiety for some parents, improving their ability to concentrate on their jobs.

“You have no idea how it’s painful to leave a-3 month old baby at home after maternity leave. A number of mothers opt to resign from their job instead of leaving a child at a delicate age,” said Lulu Karangwa, mother of three and co-founder and Managing Director of KHU Family Care Solutions.

The program targets children from 3 months to two (2) years. It does not target mothers in offices only; rather, mothers from any work place can seek the service too.

A Child playing as he learns some computer (laptop) programs at a Day care Centre File photo

In case a father works in the same area with the mother, it will also be a good opportunity for both parents to provide affection to the child; an element that is highly lacking in present generation and does affect most children psychologically as they develop various immorality amid that seems like social Isolation.

Karangwa suggests that they have a formula where an employer and employee can share costs on this service, an element with a mutual agreement for the benefit of both the parent (s) and the facilitator.

An employer would provide space-a room at workplace, while interested mothers would bargain with the service provider an amount of money to pay a day care professional.

To go about this, KHU intends to reach out to institutions and sell their project to both the mothers and the employers.

Beneficiaries of the service will be bringing their children and find all requirements at workplace. The mother will need to walk to the next room whenever she needs to breastfeed.

Considering the benefit of breastfeeding to both mother and child that Health Experts and sociological scholars do insist on Mother-child relationship for better physical and moral growth.

According to the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion in Rwanda; the program would contribute highly in promoting families and participate in building a better society.

Minister Oda Gasinzigwa was approached as the initiators presented the program to the Ministry and said, it is a promising initiative that her Ministry shall study and offer some support where necessary; the Minister has not given any precise support though she admitted it was a good one.

Mothers might also be served lunch in the same place to maximize contacts with child, but that needs be discussed between two parties. “Again for mutual benefit”

In case the institution cannot have a vacant room for this project, the service provider will have two alternatives; one is to rent nearby the workplace or to do a consortium crèche whereby two or three institutions will have their children in one place.

Karangwa said, they will need the program to be sponsored by employers. Having considered a nutrition component as one of necessities in the program. It is a program that combines an academic, social, and nutrition items as Key elements. Most importantly according to Karangwa; the Program

The Ministry of Health has also been contacted but officials said they need to think about it and find out how conducive it would be to the public health particularly both Mother and child health. The Ministry officials though thought it was a vibrant Idea.

Meanwhile, several government institutions have been approached, “because, not only we are serving mothers, but we will contribute to employment once we start,” says Karangwa.

Rwanda is looking for 200,000 jobs every year, but for the last two years, the country created only 160,000 jobs annually.

KHU Family Care Solutions requested support in training of family-care professionals at National Employment Program (NEP) which is implemented under Workforce Development Authority (WDA).

“The project is good. We are still at planning stage; looking into how we can train required people,”Abdallah Nzabandora, head of NEP told News of Rwanda.

The project owners are targeting to employ only A-level graduate girls.

Charges on this service per child could reach Rwf 100,000 per month, but Karangwa said, the cost can also be as low as Rwf 30,000, depending on the number of children at a center.

One care giver will be responsible of 3 to 4 children.

Karangwa’s education background is business and so are her two partners.

“We have seen the program successfully implemented by Safaricom in Kenya,” says Karangwa.

She further said, the program is similar to an international Montessori education, an educational approach developed basing on children emphasis on personality development, independence, freedom within limits; and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development.

This one however is to be brought in favour of Rwanda environment and it would focus on upbringing a better generation stressing on both family bond (children & parents) and socio-economic model that suits a working class particularly Mothers.