Mrs. Dorothy Nyong’o, the First Lady of Kisumu County, has launched three day care centers in Kisumu for low income mothers as a strategy to help young mothers pursue their education during motherhood.
While launching the project, Mrs. Nyongo said that the effort was the result of collaboration between the Department of Education in Kisumu and Kidogo Innovations Limited.
As a pilot project, the three day care centers will be located at Akado, Obange and Ahero Vocational Training Centers (VTC) in Nyakach East and Nyando Sub-counties.
The centers will provide quality and affordable early child-care for young mothers who have had to drop out of educational institutions due to lack of day care facilities across the county. Currently, Kisumu has 26 VTCs and the plan is to spread the centers in all VTCs across the county.
As she launched the centers, the First Lady also launched a new dormitory at Ahero VTC which has a capacity of 75 occupants. The facility was funded by the county government and is named after the First Lady – Mama Dorothy dormitory.
Among technical courses executed at the VTC are: Fashion, Driving School, ICT, Food and Beverage, Masonry, Building technology, Mechanical Engineering, Design, Beauty and Therapy.
The centers, which will provide services for babies between 1-4 years, will be equipped with state-of-the-art learning gear, a nursing facility, professional caretakers and playgrounds.
While launching the facilities, Mrs. Nyong’o encouraged young mothers to take advantage of vocational training to acquire skills and practical experience for personal development and to increase their chances of landing jobs in the highly competitive job market.
Referring to the Children’s Act, Mrs. Nyong’o affirmed her commitment to protect the rights of the child. Establishing the centers frees the young mothers to engage in productive activities while giving the children an opportunity to thrive when their mothers are away.
Over the years, young mothers have had to face several life challenges as they also pursue their career ambitions and lack of daycare centers has been central in frustrating young mothers and making them unproductive in society.
The centers are a big step in the right direction and will, no doubt, assist young mothers in acquiring critical skills which will enable them improve their economic capacities in Kisumu county.
Kisumu City News
