Kaya ChildCare Center (KCC) is an early childhood development organization that explores innovations for quality early childhood development and education to the children of kayayoo and other marginalized and poor families living in informal and slum settlements in Accra, Ghana.
We believe every child, irrespective of their background deserves a good foundation for education. KCC works in partnership with the mother or caregiver to maintain the child’s development trajectory even with disruptions in the mother’s daily schedule, work, travel, or living conditions.
Additionally, KCC engages regulatory and policy stakeholders on data and evidence of impactful models and approaches for child learning in informal urban communities. www.kayachildcare.org
We adopt play-based learning in addition to the Ghana Education Service and Department of Social Welfare’s proposed curricula for child development. Our customized curriculum engages the curiosity and playfulness of the child for their progressive development.
Every child receives a balanced meal and healthy snacks daily from the center to supplement their diet. And mothers are educated on the importance of good nutrition. In addition to a safe and hygienic space, learners and mothers receive annual health screening and tips for a healthy lifestyle. Learners’ basic required immunization records are kept up to date in partnership with the mother.
We recognize that there remains a lot to be learned about the unique early childhood development, education, and care needs of marginalized informal urban communities in Ghana. We commit to using data and evidence from the simple innovations we practice to make a case for new approaches for early childhood development for the marginalized urban poor child.
KCC runs an early childhood education program for children 1 to 5 years old. We use recycled learning material and engage through play while remaining in sync with the Ghana Education Service pre-school curriculum. Our center is located within a walking distance of the mother’s dwelling or the market, ensuring little to no cost to access.
The school has a team of eleven; five teachers and two teacher assistants, and four administrative staff. All staff live in the local community making them relatable to the mothers and families who use our center. It serves 83 children across four groups: Babies (entry class) (ages 1 to 2), Nursery 1 (ages 2 to 3), Nursery 2 (ages 3 to 4), and K-Classes (ages 4 to 5). All new enrolments start in the entry class regardless of the age before being placed in a class after settling and building some social skills.
The program currently serves 92 children. KCC’s center has served 244 children and 237 mothers (57% kayayei), and the remaining being mothers of a similar work and livelihood profile as the kayayoo. Evidence has shown that economic activity and value to household has increased for the families we serve. And agency, and self- worth has improved for mothers who haved accessed the Childcare services and as a result have been empowered for economic freedom. Five graduations have seen 34 kids successfully enroll in and thrive in primary school with academic support provided by us through primary three. The first graduates of KCC are now in primary five.
The project targeted at 1- to 6-year-old children in informal urban poor households in the Madina area, engaged kayayei and hawking mothers to design and create early learning content boxes filled with simple handmade manipulatives for independent learning through play in a flexible, inclusive, and sustainable manner.It ran two facilitated babysitting kiosks and distributed learning content boxes to children at their mothers’ workstations within a 1.5 km radius of KCC’s center. Each child received an independent learning box with content developed based on a customized play curriculum. The project was piloted in five communities in Madina, Accra: Redco, Melcom, Kenkele, the Social Welfare area, and the Madina Market.
A total of 508 children, with equal boy and girls, benefitted from childcare and child learning services using 17,500 independent early learning content boxes created and distributed by 115 marginalized youth engaged by the project. Evaluation showed evidence of improvement in the children’s development over the 12-to-14-week use of the content boxes
To encourage general wellbeing and ensure children 0 to 8 are up to date with their vaccinations, nutrition, and general health, KCC holds an annual health screening exercise for the children of kayayoo in the community. The event held at the KCC premises, engages health professionals as volunteers. A full assessment of a child is done by a pediatrician and a medical doctor. Health, hygiene, and nutrition education is done by a public health nurse, a midwife, and a dietician. Priority is given for children who are underweight and under 3 years old. Prescriptions for different medical diagnosis were issued and the center and private donors provide financial assistance to mothers who need it. Referrals are made to local health centers for conditions that need further care, and care packs of dental care are given to mothers for their children.
From 2018 to date, we have provided general pediatric medical screening, dental, and eye screening to 420 children ages 0 to 36 months in the Madina market area. We have partnered with 20 pediatrics doctors and health professionals, and dietitians for this, and made referrals to local medical centers for further treatment and care where needed.
