Blessing Baby Daycare Center

I wrote this post on Saturday, but forgot to post it. :-(  Oops!

HCO is having an exciting and busy new year! God is opening doors in some amazing ways.

A few things have been in the back of my mind for a while. A few other things have been on hold because I did not have the “okay” or “go-ahead” from the Lord in order to move forward. And still a few other things have just presented themselves in the recent weeks/months and seem to perfectly align with the direction God I believe God is leading us.

So, I want share one of those with you now! We have another way to offer a new hope to babies and their families, this time by assisting and supporting these families so that they may better care for their children.

Our social worker, Joyce, recently had the idea to open a daycare center for young children. This is VERY new and practically unheard of in the Kenyan culture. The norm is to keep the baby in their own home with a “house girl” until they go to Baby Class (preschool) at the age of 2 or 3.

However, with the changing generation, it is much more difficult to find stable house girls as the Western world has taken over the mindset and opened many girls’ eyes to wanting more and they are not content to stay. (I’m not saying that is good or bad.) Meanwhile, they leave at t a moment’s notice, leaving the family with no one to stay with the child. The mom will immediately loose any job she is fortunate to have.

On the other hand, we have the lower class population, mostly slum dwellers. They of course are often unable to have “house help” to stay with their children, thus nearly eliminating the possibility of the mom even going to find work. The jobs they might find are working in the shamba (a garden) and selling vegetables for 100 shillings per day (approximately $1.23).

So, what does this have to do with HCO? We were able to assist Joyce in the start-up costs (i.e. painting and carpet) and provide the needed items to sustain the daycare center, such as toys and bedding for naptime. 

We will also be sponsoring half of the babies in the daycare center. The center will be half paying families ($26 per month) and half sponsored families. The babies who pay will be the children of professional working women. (fyi, the average monthly salary of these women would be approx $150-180) The babies we sponsor will be coming from the nearby slums in the Njoro area outside Nakuru, and their moms will now be able to work decent jobs where they can earn and provide for their family. We will be having a sponsorship grade so that they will eventually be paying their own way.

This is Angie (left), our new Director of HOh and Joyce (right), our social worker

The center opens this week and these are the first precious babies who will be going there. Two of them are sponsored, one is Joyce’s daughter, and one is the daughter of a working woman.

Two of these women will also be a part of another new project of HCO. (Oooh, did you catch that? More fun stuff to come!)

This is the compound where the center is. It is currently in a residential compound. This is a typical middle class housing compound.

We wish Joyce the very best of luck as she starts this new venture. It will be such a great asset to families with young children. I am so proud of Joyce for being willing to think outside of the box and try something that is so new to this part of the world. Great job, Joyce!