Access to quality child care can unlock the potential for both children as well as women, particularly in underserved communities. Children who receive supportive care in their early years experience improved health, growth and development. Within informal settlements in East Africa, access to quality care can have a tremendous impact on a child’s future.
Kidogo is an organization working to improve access to quality, affordable early childhood care and education in East Africa’s lower income communities. This includes identifying, training and supporting female entrepreneurs (Mamapreneurs) to start or grow their own child care businesses. Mamapreneurs receive training and financial support to establish child care businesses that nurture young children’s healthy growth and development, while also generating a sustainable income. The Hilton Foundation partnered with Kidogo in 2017 to expand its successful social franchise model within lower income communities in Kenya.
Hellen is a thriving Mamapreneur who owns and operates a Kidogo child care center in Nairobi, Kenya. After running an informal daycare for many years, Hellen shares the impact Kidogo’s support has had on her financial well-being, on the mothers who entrust Hellen with their young ones, and on the futures of the young children who now have access to safe, healthy, and nurturing care.
When I joined Kidogo, I came to learn daycare is a business, which you can have income, and which can sustain you.
Hellen Moeri, owner of a Kidogo daycare center
