Daycare plan to help young mothers finish their study or get a job

Dear readers,

I'm Linda Sekayita. I'm 34 years old and in the past years i lived in the Netherlands. In juli i came back to Uganda with the idea to help young mothers and children to get a better life by giving them the opportunity to study by providing good daycare. I did some research and got in contact with people who want to join in and others who want to help me.

I wrote down the conceptplan and we got in action to start as soon as possible. We have a lot of people who helped by giving child furniture, good safe toys and safe beds. Now we only need the money to ship the goods from the Netherlands to Uganda and a startbudget for the first month. After the first month we will have income from our customers who pay a small fee for using the daycare. So after the first month we will support the daycare with this incoming payment.

I'm passionate to make the world a little bit better and think that i can do this by using my experiences living in the Netherlands and Uganda. During the time that I have been living in Amsterdam I worshiped at the seventh-day Adventist Church in Amsterdam Zuid. I can gladly say that my brothers and sisters in the church will support me both with prayers and funding.

I hope you want to read my conceptplan and help me fulfill my dream and help these girls.

Thank you!

Yours sincerly,

Linda Sekayita

Our Vision

A world where all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Our Goal

To start a quality childcare & preschool services for young children (age of 3months-3years and after school services) for 8+ hours during the working day to give young mothers and older children the possibility to finish there school/study or get a job.

The Problem

Uganda has the fastest growing population in the world with a 3.4% annual growth and fertility rate of 8 children per woman in their reproductive age group, it also has the highest rate of teenage unwanted pregnancies with often young girls dropping out school due to pregnancies a mindset embed within the cultural settings abided by several tribes which allow early teenage marriages. This is a contributing factor to a multitude of social problems including poverty, unemployment, burden of STD’s including HIV/AIDS, Crime and prostitution among others. Working mothers living in Uganda’s informal settlements (urban slums) face a difficult decision of where to keep or study their young children during the working day. As a result, they are typically left with one of three options

• Leaving children home alone for up to 6 hours of the day
• Pulling an older sibling (usually an adolescent girl) out of school to take care of a younger sibling.
• informal-babycare-Dropping off their child at an unlicensed, congested home-based “babycare” with an untrained caregiver for a small fee

IN ALL 3 CASES, THE HEALTHY GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD IS SEVERELY COMPROMISED.

Without supportive care in their early years, these children enter school with physical & learning disabilities that result in them being locked in an intergenerational cycle of poverty that is near impossible to escape. In addition, their mothers are unable to hold consistent employment, as they lack reliable childcare services during the working day. As rural-urban migration trends continue, this problem is only expected to get worse

Nito baby care Model (Our Model)

Poor quality childcare in the informal settlements costs between 3000-5000 Uganda shillings per day (approx. 0.80cents – 1.20 euros) for working mothers. However, the lack of oversight of these unlicensed “babycares” often results in poor quality care, abuse and neglect, leading to significant delays in young children’s physical, cognitive and socio-emotional development. For roughly the same price, Nito day care center seeks to offer children all the building blocks they need to thrive through our high-quality Early Childhood Centers focused on child impact, scalability, and sustainability.

We seek to provide quality childcare & preschool services for young children (age of 3months-3years and after school services) for 8+ hours during the working day. Our center will be designed to be best-practice models for the community, providing young children with all the building blocks they need to thrive including:

• Safe & stimulating environments
• Certified and loving caregivers from the local community
• Health & nutrition programs
• Proprietary play-based curriculum(Nito way)
• Charging 2euros-5euros per day depending on the time we have the child.

Methodology

The Play Based Approach

The “Nito Way” is a play-based, child-centred and holistic approach to early childhood care and education. Our curriculum seeks to align with the Uganda Early Childhood Development Standard Guidelines and the Ministry of Education Guidelines. It will place a particular emphasis on play, problem-solving, and social-emotional learning rather than adhere to a specific philosophy of early childhood education, we draw upon research on children’s learning and development to provide an alternative way of delivering the Uganda national early childhood education and development objectives. Adapting research that intentionally-planned, child-centered learning experiences can promote children’s readiness for nursery, primary school and beyond, we seek to foster a lifelong love of learning in all of the children and families we hope to serve .While simple academic skills are also embedded in our program, we strive to present them in developmentally-appropriate ways rather than simply memorizing the ABCs and 123s which is the current method used. This allows for more complexity and challenges than a one-size-fits all, heavily scripted model. This will ensure our staff gain experience in adapting learning experiences for a wide range of abilities and learning styles, resulting in the best possible development outcomes for Nito Kids.

“Play is a process through which children actively manipulate and explore ideas and materials that interest them. Play promotes all aspects of children’s development, and helps children learn how to make decisions, negotiate social relationships, solve problems and express their feelings and ideas. Research shows that academic instruction impacts children’s learning in the short-term, the benefits fade over time. In contrast, high-quality, play-based learning experiences have a longer lasting impact on child development, particularly for disadvantaged children”.

Get Involved

As a social enterprise, we’re always looking for help, there are very many ways to get involved;

• Volunteer your time & expertise: Are you passionate about changing the world? Do you have technical expertise or previous experience that you think could help us make a greater impact? Shoot us a note to let us know!
• Make a personal or corporate donation: Looking to support a good cause? Do you care about the sustainability of programs you fund ? Help us to start up this center by sponsoring us or by providing a scholarship to a family in need.
• Help us spread the word: Are you a social media star? Is your twitter feed overflowing with followers? Know someone who might be a good contact for our team? Spread the word about Nito Day Care Center and the importance of Early Childhood Development.

Estimated budget:

Start Capital:

Shipping and Taxes for furniture and toys =2000 euros

First month expenses:

Item Total(euros)

Rent 320

Salary 1 staff 100

Security 100

Food 50

Miscellaneous 130

Total 700

Video Showing Jajja’s home care in Katanga to highlight the problem

https://youtu.be/Z3Kg2tf21CY

To start this daycare we contacted our connections in the Netherlands and some of them were willing to donate safe furniture and toys. These toys have to be shipped to Uganda. The shipping will take place at the end of Novembe2017] and will cost 2000 euro. For this amount we can ship a lot of goods, like 20 chairs, beds and toys. We are very happy with this free donation and hope we can raise the money to ship them.

Are you willing to help us?

Even a small donation can help us.

Yours Sincerely

Linda Sekayita