Cee n Care Kit

Meet Nene, a childminder who runs her own daycare in her home comprising of one bedroom and one sitting room in a two storey building, housing several apartments, located in Akoka area of Lagos Nigeria. Nene’s services is closing the gap for low-income families who cannot afford a standard daycare nor able to hire a private Nanny, by charging very low fees to take care of the children while their parents work.

Nene has no training in childcare and only holds the senior secondary school certificate (equivalent of high school).

Nene has never heard of early childhood education as a concept nor its benefits. Her best efforts at childcare includes making sure she feeds the children every two hours and making them sleep and watch tv if there is electricity. She cares for children aged 0 to 3 years through the day and have older children join in her care after school. Most times,her two underage staff aged 14 and 17 whom she recruited from the village helps to pick up the after school charges. Within her room and parlour, Nene cares for close to 25 kids and charges a daily rate of N300 (approximately $1) or a monthly N5000 ($17).

When asked if she was formally trained to take care of children, Nene told us she was called by God to do what she does. She told us how she started taking care of babies at the age of 5 when her parents gave her out as a domestic staff to a relative. When asked if she was open to being trained Nene said she can’t find the time to leave the children except on Sundays as some children do sleep over especially children of Nurses and Nannies.

Home based childminders like Nene are the reason we are going into interior communities and disadvantaged communities to revamp and ignite action to reduce the inequalities in early childhood and care. Nene’s facility, a one room apartment has no ventilation except the entrance door and no toilet facility. In our presence, three toddler boys went out the door to pee into the gutter. The heat inside was unbearable and we chose to stay outside on a bench yet flies would not let us be. There is a water well positioned where we sat right at the entrance and of course no signboard. There is nothing like playground. We witnessed a couple of parents come and pick their kids at about 6pm and they told us Nene’s place was a home away from home for their kids.

With our introduction of Cee n Care Kit, training and community network of Home-based childminders, we are convinced that more children will enjoy the benefits of early childhood care and education and more prosperity will be created for the Home based childminders.