African Woman and Child Feature Service

A visit to the Amica Hair Salon at Lang’ata Shopping Centre, one is greeted by joyful faces of beautiful hardworking women full in life and humour. Behind the enthusiasm it is impossible to tell the burden of care that these women have to go through before reporting to work at 8.00 am.

One characteristic about these women is that they are mothers and reside in the Southlands Slum in Lang’ata Estate and have to contend with the challenges of taking care of their families both socially and economically. However, because they make it to work in the morning, they have to ensure that everything back home is in order which includes preparing and taking their young ones to the nearest day care centres for the day.

Daily chores

Milka Awesa is the sole proprietor of this salon and her routine day begins 4.00 am. She has to prepare her children who include a 14-yearold daughter who goes to Anjali Community School in Kibera as well as her one-year-old baby who spends most of the day in a day-care centre next to her house.

Awesa, 33, does not have to worry about her daughter since she is old enough to prepare herself. However, the critical part is preparations for the baby which include cooking porridge and food as well as packing clothes and diapers.

“This is most hectic time for me because besides cooking, I have to bathe the baby as early as 6.00 am before dropping him at the centre by 6.30 am,” says Awesa. She adds: “Then I come back to complete my daily chores before leaving the house.”

Unlike those in full-time employment whose working scheduled is clearly defined, Awesa’s schedule in unpredictable due to the nature of her work. The earliest she can get back home is at 8.00 pm on a normal day but it is worse during weekends and public holidays since this is their peak time.

“During weekends and holidays, we have to open the salon as early as 7.00 am because we have customers arriving early before it gets busy. We also have to leave very late because we have to ensure that all the customers are served before we close, and this is usually at 9.00 pm,” says enthusiastic Awesa.

Due to her work schedule, the responsibility of taking care of the baby in the evening is also borne by her daughter who takes over from the centre. She has to pass by the care centre on her way home from school to pick her brother and take care of him besides preparing dinner. This has also put a strain on the girl who is already over-burdened by her school assignments which have to be submitted the following morning.

She confesses that many times, she feels that she has absconded her responsibility as a mother to merely providing for shelter and food: “I am always busy and rarely at home during the day. I have not been able to monitor the progress of my children. I fear for my daughter because she is a candidate and will soon be sitting for her exams,” observes Awesi.

Without any other option, Awesi also has to battle with her son’s health especially cold and flu that do not heal because of his low body immunity. Like many other women, Awesi and her colleagues are grappling with the rapid social change that is going on in many countries, Kenya included. This has led to changes in family structure and an increased number of working mothers and hence the need for increased services for the care of preschool children while parents are away from home.

The concept of day care is not new especially in many cultures where supplementary care was almost routine for either the very privileged, who could afford to pay for the services, or for the under privileged, who had to improvise child care to enable mothers contribute to the economic life of the family. What is relatively new however, is the extent to which such care is now needed by all families, not just the very rich and the poor.

This concept is more structured and supported by governments in developed countries such as Europe, America and Australia but has remained a self-initiative for women in developing countries such as Kenya.

The irony is that while the rich and the middle class income women manage to deal with their families by employing house helps to take care of their children, the low income women have to find an alternative solution. They are not sitting at home for the mere fact that they cannot afford house helps. They are finding alternative methods of dealing with the challenges. They have to grapple with balancing their finances and finding a reliable and convenient place for their children to spend the day. The charges at the day care centres range from KSh20 to KSh70 per day.

Day care centres

Most of these women in the slums depend on their meagre earnings from working as house helps, petty traders, hairdressers or waiters in restaurants. Since most of the women cannot afford to employ house helps to take care of their children, they opt for the day-care centres.

For women like Awesa, day-care centres offer the solution to their problems. They are able to do a day’s job without worrying about their children’s safety and upkeep.

According to Margaret Mbithe, a caretaker in one of the day care centres in Southlands, most women prefer the centres to house helps because they do not have to grapple with issues of paying higher salaries which they cannot afford. Worse still they are challenged by space since most of them live in one-roomed houses that cannot comfortably accommodate the house help. Other issues include house girls abandoning children in the houses and leaving without notice.

At 35, Mbithe, a mother of four offers day care services. She takes care of 14 children ranging from between three months to three years in a two roomed house and charges KSh50 per day. The sitting room that is equipped with playing materials for the children, two potties at a corner and the second room is equipped with double decker beds that are an indication of the activity that goes on in the house.

Mbithe has also stocked pain killers in case any of the children develops fever and needs emergency treatment before getting to hospital. She also keeps a record of the mothers’ telephone numbers which she would use to inform them in the event that a child fell ill.

She starts receiving the children as early as 6.00 am. She has to wake up early to prepare the house before they are dropped off. Some of the children are picked as late as 8.30 pm.

“Since some of the mothers bring the children very early in the morning, we are forced to bathe and cook for them at an additional fee of KSh20 per day,” explains Mbithe. She adds: “However, mothers have to bring the food.”

Mbithe has standardized the meal times; she offers porridge at 10am, lunch at 12.30 pm and another serving of porridge at 4.00pm.

Depending on their earnings, most women prefer to make their payments at the end of the week while some are pay at the end of the month. However, Mbithe quickly points out that there are also mothers who are unable to pay but are still accommodated for the sake of helping a sister. However, they are encouraged to pay as little as KSh20 to cater for meals.

Having worked with children for one year now, Mbithe admits that taking care of children is not a business but a requires one to have a passion for them: “Children get bored very quickly. We have to change our activities often in order to sustain their interests. Some of the activities include singing, playing and storytelling.”

Growing practice

These sentiments are also supported by Mary Adida who runs the largest day care centre in Kibera, the Bethel Outreach Children’s Centre in Gatwekera Village. Having started the day care centre in 2006, then in her own house, she has seen the centre grow from accommodating six children to 45 today.

According to Adida, the need for child care has become important as mothers struggle to either supplement their husband’s income and for some, put food on the table every day. These factors have seen the Centre grow into a nursery school to a primary school that accommodates 278 children.

For Adida, day care centres play a critical role in the lives of the children especially those living in vulnerable conditions in the slum areas. The day care centres provide security for the children since they are protected from many social ills that go on in the slum.

“Mothers feel secure once they know that their children are in a safe place regardless of the environment.”

Adida hopes that the Government will take the initiative to support child development especially from Early Childhood Education in order to assist women with the opportunity to become effective workers as they contribute to the economy of this country.