Home-based childcare providers in Murang’a have been equipped with new skills to improve the quality of care offered to young children in communities.
The training brings together childcare providers and mentors from all nine subcounties under a new Provider Champion Model that will enable caregivers to support and mentor one another.
Caroline Nduta, a mentor from Kandara, said the model would help ensure providers continue receiving guidance and applying proper childcare practices in their communities.
The initiative has been implemented through the NurtureFirst programme in partnership with the Catholic Diocese of Murang’a, with providers receiving training on child protection, safeguarding and quality standards over the past two years.
The training is also aimed at preparing caregivers to take greater responsibility for supporting their peers as the programme prepares to exit, ensuring the knowledge and systems established during its implementation are maintained.
“We want sustainability in this project; that is why we want to roll out provider champions who will continue supporting other providers in their journey so that when we exit the stage, the project will go on and it will not die off,” Nduta said.
The Provider Champion Model is expected to create a network of trained caregivers who can offer peer support beyond formal training sessions, with mentors continuing to guide the champions.
The approach is particularly important in a sector where many caregivers operate within communities and may have limited access to formal training or professional support.
A 2024 mapping exercise identified 1,268 home-based childcare providers in Murang’a caring for about 6,700 children.
Nationally, more than 1.6 million children are estimated to be cared for in home-based childcare settings by close to 300,000 providers.
Mercy Wangari, one of the providers trained as a champion, said the programme had equipped caregivers with knowledge they could pass on to others in their communities.
“We have really benefited as we have acquired knowledge that we will take back to the providers and use in our home-based child care. We are ready to take over and be better than we were before,” she said.
Laban Mwangi, a mentor from Gatanga subcounty, urged parents to take their children to trained home-based childcare providers, saying the caregivers had acquired skills to provide better care.
He also urged fathers and husbands to support women involved in home-based childcare and encourage families to make use of trained providers.
Home-based childcare primarily caters to young children from birth to three years, providing care within homes and communities while parents engage in work, education and other activities.
Eva Wangari, a master trainer with the Catholic Diocese of Murang’a, said the new model would allow providers to extend the support they had received to other caregivers.
“We were sensitising them on the provider champion model where, under the new strategy, we will have providers being supported by the mentors to offer support to their fellow providers beyond the training,” she explained.
She urged organisations and other stakeholders working with children to develop programmes and systems that support home-based childcare providers so they can continue offering nurturing care.
With the NurtureFirst programme preparing to exit, the Provider Champion Model is expected to help sustain the support system and preserve the gains made in improving home-based childcare in Murang’a.
