How safe are toddlers at care centres?

Many parents today, mainly working professionals and business mothers, entrust their children to child care centres.
Some centres provide only day care services but others provide both night and day care. Almost every suburb in Kampala and other towns across the country are brimming with day care centres.
Working parents drop their children in the morning and only return in evenings or afternoons to pick them. But how safe is your kid in these day care centres? Who are the people handling your child? What’s their competence and care for your kid that you pay highly for? Are the schools licensed to offer such services?

These are pertinent questions that every caring parent should pose in mind and have them answered in the affirmative before they enroll their kids in day care centres or choose which school they should go to.
Some centres have gone as far as providing night care for children ranging from one month to five years old.
Following last week’s fatal incident at Talitha Day and Night Care Centre in Namasuba on Entebbe Road, many parents ought to be more careful than before and get interested in knowing what happens to their kids after leaving them behind at the day care centres.

Talitha is now in the news after a four-year-old girl, whose parents had entrusted to the centre, died under suspicious circumstances. Police are now investigating a case of possible homicide.
Natasha Tendo was found dead by police who had been called in by the school proprietor, Ms Carol Mirembe, saying the girl was lying mute in her bed. Upon checking, police realised the girl was long dead and blood was reportedly oozing from a wound on her head.

Interrogated on how the girl, who had just reported back for the new school term, died, Ms Mirembe told police that the kid had been living at school since she was two years old.

She said she was raising the girl as her own because she was abandoned at the school by an unknown person. But neighbours insisted the deceased’s mother had an agreement with Ms Mirembe to leave her at the school before she flew out of the country for employment. Police detained Ms Mirembe as a suspect. “Neighbours told us that the girl was brought in by her mother after she was convinced that the child would be looked after very well provided she sent money for studies, accommodation and meals. Even the school signpost indicated that they offer day and night care for babies,” a detective, who preferred anonymity, quoted a witness narrative.

Residents speak out
Residents blamed Tendo’s death on police. They said they had alerted police several times about mistreatment of children at the care centre, but that the Force did not take heed. The residents further alleged that even on the fateful day, they heard Mirembe banging the child on the wall before she abruptly went silent. This claim is still a subject of police investigations.

“This centre has been mistreating children for a long time and we pity parents who trust them with their children. We told police but they did not take our warning serious. One day they came here but engaged in private talks with the administration. The mistreatment continued,” one parent, who preferred anonymity, alleged.

Another woman living near the school said they had alerted some parents about the mishandling of children and some had withdrawn their kids. Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said all leads and claims were closely being followed to get the gist of the matter.
He said after conclusion of investigations, action will be taken if anyone is found liable for Tendo’s death.

“We are still investigating this matter and we have the owner in our custody. We are looking for the girl’s parents and we believe the owner will help us identify the deceased’s parents or relatives,” Mr Onyango said.
Citing her own experience about another day care centre, Ms Alice Atugonza, a parent, said a lot of mischief happens in kindergartens and day care centres, but parents never get to know. She urged parents to make surprise checks at the day care centres to check what happens to their children in the caretaker’s hands.

Impromptu visits
Ms Atugonza said one day, she made an impromptu visit in 2017 at a care centre in Kyaliwajjala, Kiira Municipality in Wakiso District, where she often left her child. She said she was shocked to find her 13-month-old baby abandoned on a veranda while the caretakers were in office playing games on a computer and others napping. She said there was no security guard at the entrance to check who is entering the school. She entered the premises, walked to the veranda and picked her child without anyone’s notice and left.

“They were not aware that the security guard was not on duty. If I had been a criminal, I could have kidnapped the child without staff or guard’s knowledge. I withdrew my child from the school and advised other parents to do so,” Ms Atugonza said.
Ms Daphine Kato, the principal of Kampala Parents School, said there are various reasons why parents leave their children in day care centres. She said some are single parents, others have been frustrated by maids and they cannot guarantee safety of their children at home while others leave the kids at day care centres to seek employment abroad.

‘Tricky business’
“The issue of day and night care centres is very tricky because parents have different reasons why they take children there. Financial difficulties have made both parents go abroad for work. Many relatives are no longer trusted and this is a reason why people choose day and night care centres,” Ms Kato says.

However, she says if both parents are living in the county, it is better they raise their children at home other than leaving them in day care centres.
“Some care centres look after children than parents. Some are indeed doing a very good job. Parents, leaders and security teams should always make surprise visits to such places to study the condition of children,” Ms Kato implores.

She says parents prefer leaving children in day care centres because maids have done a lot of mischief to kids and some people fear hiring them. She adds that maids are often migrant workers and do not settle in one place. They hardly stay on the job for long, so there is usually nobody to keep the kids at home when the maid has left work, Ms Kato says.
In 2008, at least 15 cases of child kidnaps involving maids were reported in Kampala Metropolitan area that covers Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono districts.

Mr Onyango says police ensure children are safe on the way to and from school but issues to do with what qualifies a place to be a day or night care centres is for the ministries of Education and Health.
“For us we come in when we realise that the children’s life is being endangered by administrators or communities around. We will demand the school to have security guards but we cannot dictate on what structures are good or bad for children. That work is for Education or Health ministry,” Onyango said.

The Minister of State for Higher Education, Dr John Chrysostom Muyingo, says it was wrong for a care centre to offer night services because the ministry has never authorised babies being in boarding.
He blames the community around Talitha and other care centres for not alerting the respective Education ministry officials about schools, care centres and kindergartens offering boarding services for young children. He says at such a tender age, children must be under their parents’ care.

Ministry rules
“In fact we inform kindergartens that they should not have a boarding section. We know they take children of at least three years and such children need to be in their parents’ care in the night. It was unacceptable for a care centre to have a boarding section. Babies should not be kept away from their parents,” Dr Muyingo says.
He says parents should always check whether a care centre or any institution of learning meets requirements such as a licence from the ministry of Education, a conducive learning environment, security and permanent and protected structures.

“Do not just drop children there. Make sure the facility is safe, must be licensed and its staff must be qualified. For us as the ministry of Education, we allow children aged three and above to be in kindergarten or school, and staff of such institutions must be qualified,” Dr Muyingo explains.
Asked whether the ministry of Education has institutions training caretakers, he says they emphasises only children aged three and above to be in kindergarten or school and handled by qualified nursery or primary teachers.

“For children below that age, it can be other institutions such as ministry of Gender,” Dr Muyingo added.
A visit by Daily Monitor to some care centres around the city gave a differing picture. At a care centre and kindergarten centre in Namuwongo, Makindye District, children were found napping on bare floor. The staff said parents pay Shs70,000 per month, which translates into Shs210,000 for a term of three months.

“This money is little. Parents can’t afford more. We help them to keep their children but we don’t keep them here in the night. If babies can demand their parents during day, what would happen in the night?” a female staff said.
At another care centre in Kansanga, mattresses had been placed on the floor where some kids were sleeping while others were watching educative cartoons. A lady at the centre, who identified herself as Monica, said parents pay Shs400,000 for three months and that money involves breakfast, lunch and evening tea.

“I am just a worker and I don’t want to share much because I have not been authorised by our director. However, we have children of one year and above. We charge Shs400,000 because we teach these children some basic things and some are in baby class,” she said.
Ministry of Health spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona says Local Government officials where a school or a day care centre is located must ensure it has a hygienic learning environment.
“Issues for licensing and regulation are for the ministry of Education. For us we come in to ensure there is a good learning environment. We give our advice on particular matters like ensuring the facility has good sanitation amenities,” Mr Ainebyoona says.

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