Baby Day Care at Grace
Every morning as the mist is still heavy on the lake, bare footed women, with their little one strapped tightly to their backs, make their way along the dusty roads at dawn to the gates of the Grace Centre in southern Bahir Dar. Inside the gates the babies are deftly slipped from their young mothers, and placed in the arms of trained, caring day care workers. As the gate closes, children are bathed and changed into Centre clothes, and fed their breakfast of cereal and milk.
At day care the little ones play, learn songs, eat several meals and snacks and have naps. The bigger preschool children have a routine that includes learning numbers, letters and colours, as well as playing with toys, hearing stories, singing and dancing.
All the children can be seen by the Grace Nurses any time they are ill, and the rest of their immediate family can also. Day care children are happy and safe while their mother works or attends school. At the end of the day, mother’s return to the Grace day care to collect their children, chatting with each other as they wash and breastfeed their little ones, before returning to the dusty streets and their homes.
We regard Baby Day Care as the "flagship" of the change we are trying to affect in Bahir Dar. It should be noted that Children graduate upwards into age specific toys and routines, just as you would expect from a Day Care facility in Australia.
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