Burkina Faso
Early childhood development | Education, training, entrepreneurship
Pilot in 2018. Since 2020
The job of a childminder: for the development of children
In response to the lack of quality childcare facilities for children under 3 and the problem of unemployment, which particularly affects women and young people, since 2018 we have been seeking to develop the maternal assistant sector in Burkina Faso.
Share this project:
Support us:
The context
In Burkina Faso, as in our other countries of intervention, societies are changing.
Women work outside the home, families are more broken up, traditional models are questioned.
Parents have ambitions for their children. We are seeing a growing demand for professional childcare for toddlers.
To provide a framework for the development and education of children in Burkina Faso, from 3 to 36 months, the State has recently adopted legislation.
But in reality, public crèches are very rare, and until recently there was no specific professional training for childminders, for example.
In Yatenga, a poor province in the north of the country, unemployment has reached 60% and particularly affects women.
The insecurity in this area, with the threat of terrorism, does not favor the emancipation of young girls and mothers either.
How is your donation used?
For every €100 raised by Planète Enfants & Développement, €84.4 goes to our social mission.
Our projects are evaluated by independent firms. And our accounts are audited and certified each year by KPMG.
%
of girls go to college
%
of business owners are women
the only public crèche in Ouagadougou
The project
According to Planète Enfants & Développement, Protecting and awakening young children is a priority in the fight against inequalities from the earliest age.
To meet the demand for childcare in Burkina Faso, to ensure their safety, health and awareness, but also to give women an opportunity to train, to undertake or to have a qualified job, we have created a training program for childminders in partnership with local associations and the French government.
After defining and validating the contours of the childminder's profession with Burkinabe ministries, created 15 theoretical training modules leading to a diploma (Certificat de Qualification de Base, CQB), trained a pool of trainers made up of technicians from the Ministries in charge of Social Action and Youth to roll out the training, we have recruited 300 women for the program in 2020 and 2021 in Ouagadougou and Ouahigouya.
These women, aged between 18 and 35, were selected according to their motivation and vulnerability criteria (single mothers, divorced or widowed, forcibly displaced by attacks from armed groups, underemployed, not in school or failing at school).
In 2022, the association continued to help these women find jobs or set up their own childcare services.
In this way, we helped some of them to prepare their job applications and prepare for recruitment interviews, to help them integrate into the job market.
We helped other young women to set up their own crèche. :
from advice on the structure's model, through access to micro-credit, to the establishment's layout (safety, hygiene, etc.), activity planning, menu design, setting up a financial monitoring tool for the structure, promotion, etc.
We have also trained 6 mentor childminders to structure the sector into a network and continue to support entrepreneurs, to ensure the financial stability of their establishments and a high level of quality in terms of safety, hygiene and child development.
We continue to train and coach these mentors on a regular basis.
Over the coming months, we'd also like to train the childminders in the production of games and toys from everyday or recycled objects, as well as in soap production to reduce this item of their expenses and generate sales.
On the other hand, we support the government in publishing a legal framework, with regulations governing childcare models: Services d'Eveil et d'Education des Jeunes Enfants (SEEJE) and MAM (Maison des Assistantes Maternelles).
Other projects :
Burkina-Faso: Support for parenthood
Burkina-Faso: Improving early learning for children aged 3 to 6
Burkina Faso: Preschool educators trained
Burkina Faso: Improving hygiene in schools
"The best part is knowing that the support is continuing and that we will not be left to our own devices after the certification. We are very happy because several women will get out of misery".
Marie-Cécile, training beneficiary
Our partners in the field
Entrepreneurs of the World (EdM)
YIKRI
Esther Vision Association (EV)
Diocesan Savings and Credit Cooperative
Association for the Promotion of the Education of Young Children in Faso (APEJEF),
Association Féminine pour le Développement du Burkina (AFEDEB)
United Women for Development Association (ASFUD)