Tucheze Daycare Centre is a proactive response to community pull factors from our child protection work at Missing Child Kenya.
Tucheze Daycare Centre is an inclusive, Business 2 Community (B2C) model early childhood care and education hub. Through our programs we provide a low cost and sustainable option for improved childcare by strengthening the capacity of parents and child caregivers within low income rural and urban informal settlements (slum areas locally known as vijiji) that we serve around Mjini, Musikoma and Bondeni area of Bungoma Town environs.
Despite the evidence on the importance of quality childcare, 350 million children worldwide particularly in the Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) continue to be exposed to poor quality, informal day care. This puts them at risk of disease, growth and developmental challenges prevalent in 250 million children under 5 years old worldwide.
Informal childcare centers are mushrooming in the rural and urban informal settlements to meet the rapidly growing populations and the increasing demand for day care. Siblings caring for younger siblings are also an issue of concern that robs children of their childhood and further endangers the children under the care of older siblings through avoidable accidents.
Childcare centers in many poor urban neighborhoods are substandard, unregulated, informal, often run by women in their own homes with no training in child health, early childhood development or child safety. The APHRC research (Community of Practice (CoP) study) found that only 12 of 129 childcare centers (9%) had received any support or training.
Bungoma County is currently facing the Triple Threat problem of Teenage Pregnancy, Gender Based Violence and HIV/AIDS Infections. From January 2016, to July 2023, Bungoma County recorded 9,089 cases of SGBV among girls aged 10-17, compared to 18,510 cases reported countrywide among the same age group. This led to an alarming number of the highest in teenage pregnancy countrywide.
Although the National Guidelines for School Re-Entry in Early Learning and Basic Education (2020) guarantees teenage mothers and pregnant girls learning continuity, it fails to address the care for their children. At the Senate is the Care and Protection of Child Parents Bill (2023) that seeks to obligate establishment of care centres within or adjacent to public schools to cater for the babies as long as they are three years and below.
Poor quality of childcare is often associated with frequent infections e.g. diarrhea related diseases, malnutrition, accidents and developmental delays. For the woman, this means that they will often be away from work to take care of the sick child.
The economic consequences of using substandard childcare may be equally inhibiting or even worse than absence of paid childcare.
A famous quote in ECD is “Play is the Work of the Child” by Maria Montessori. Tucheze in Swahili means; Let’s play or let’s dance. Play is key to children’s learning, development, confidence and wellbeing. What happens around and to children in the first 1000 days shapes the way that their brains, bodies and emotions develop throughout life.
Women who take their children to good quality ECD’s become engaged in paid and productive Income generating activities thus reducing Unpaid Care Work (UCW).
Tucheze Daycare is a stepping stone for women’s socio-economic empowerment and early childhood development. Women will freely learn about and pursue income generating activities with the peace of mind of knowing that their children are catered for in a safe, educational and nutrition providing environment.
When we invest in childcare facilities, we provide critically needed care, create critically needed jobs, and become a step closer to building an equitable economy that works for everyone.
We are providing an important community safe space for inter-agency co-operation among ECD service providers in Bungoma through:
- Improved access to quality affordable early childhood care in rural and low income communities.
- Improved health of children through nutrition.
- Occupational therapy for special needs children living with disability and neuro-developmental challenges.
- Promotion decent employment for women and youth by removing constraints to work for women and girls, and reducing unpaid care work.
- Strengthening of the family unit and build resilient communities through intergenerational interactions and activities.
Karibuni Tucheze! Welcome to Tucheze!
Let us Play, Learn and Explore together.