One of PfC’s largest and most comprehensive projects is the establishment of Montessori-inspired day cares for 0-4-year-olds in Ethiopia. Education of day care assistants is part of this project. On 20 February, a graduation party could finally be held for the 56 day care assistants in batch 2 (educated in 2020). With this, 89 of 180 assistants have graduated. Representative from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth, representatives from the teachers and students and Ida Dingsør from PfC participated and gave speeches.
One of the main obstacles to women’s participation in the formal working life in Ethiopia is the lack of day care facilities for the youngest children. Due to this PfC, together with a number of partners, including Ethiopian authorities, has started a pilot project to establish day cares for 0-4-year-olds.
If we succeed, this could be the start of a national development of early childhood day cares in Ethiopia – and give 10 million young children in Ethiopia a safe and good day care offer. The authorities have decided that public offices will offer day care places to their employees. The collaboration with PfC in the preparation of a national framework will thus contribute to this implementation, as well as a long-term roll-out of both public and private day care facilities for children under 4 years of age. 15 ministries have established toddler day cares and 2 existing day cares have developed separate sections for toddlers. PfC has provided guidance on design and operation, and the authority pays for refurbishment, facilitation and operation.
