{"id":5064,"date":"2019-09-03T14:06:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T11:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5064"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:31","slug":"kidogo-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/09\/03\/kidogo-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"In A Myriad Of Challenges Lies Hope For The Woman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cInequalities are linked with poverty and sustainable development, and have patently hindered development and stalled progress. Acting together, these inequalities further entrench the deprivation suffered by certain groups and individuals and manifest themselves clearly in the way space is used\u201d – <\/strong>Dr. Joan Clos Under-Secretary-General, United Nations Executive Director, UN-Habitat<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet Wanjiku, a mother of two and a wife to Julius, living in Kenya’s biggest slums. She did not manage to finish school and got married at the age of 16. They barely make a living as Julius is the sole breadwinner. Attributed to this is the fact that Wanjiku has to take care of the children back at home. Julius does not make a lot of cash from his odd jobs either. The little he makes he uses to drown his sorrows at a local bar. At times Wanjiku is beaten up for not being productive. She would change her situation and work as her husband but there are children involved and they need a caregiver. The same story is shared by Adebayo and Jabulile from Shomolu and Soweto in South Africa or even Agbogbloshie.  One question remains after their story. Is gender equality attainable in informal settlements of Africa?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read\nalso; Can The Elephant walk Another Mile?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Informal\nsettlements are home to urban residents who live under a dollar a day.<\/strong> In\nSub-Saharan Africa, fifty-nine\npercent of the urban population lives in slums<\/a>\nand it is predicted that by 2050 this number will project to 1.2 billion\npeople. These settlements are characterized by inadequate housing, basic\nservices, and social amenities, overcrowding and high population density,\ninsecure tenure, social exclusion, and poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gender inequalities remain severe, with women being\nfive times more likely to be unemployed than males. This has translated to\nvulnerability and feeling of insecurity by the dwellers in the settlements, especially\namong the women. Poverty and disempowerment go hand in hand because of the\ninability to meet basic needs, resulting in dependence on others, ruling out\nthe capacity for meaningful choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kidogo provides high-quality, affordable early childhood care and education for young children in families living in Africa’s slums|photo|facebook.com<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Women who live in slums represent one of the strongest forces for the development of millions of urban families living in poverty around the world. They not only take daily care of the housework and but a majority step in to assist the breadwinners or are the breadwinners\u2019 and generators of household livelihoods. It becomes challenging to play the role of a caregiver and a provider for most women in the slums. A ray of light has shone however courtesy of Kidogo<\/a> social enterprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kidogo provides high-quality, affordable early\nchildhood care and education for young children in families living in Africa\u2019s\nurban slums. When a mother decides to put food to the table most children are\nleft alone, under the care of an elder sibling who is pulled from school or in\ncongested, unsafe baby-care centers with poor sanitation. Kidogo centers weigh\nin reducing this dilemma and at the same time help in childhood development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The centers offer safe and stimulating physical\nenvironments, trained early childhood development, caregivers from the local\ncommunity and health and nutrition programs as well as explanatory play-based\ncurriculum, using learning stations and child-centered strategies.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kidogo centers offer safe and stimulating physical environments and trained early childhood development|photo|acumenideas.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kidogo centers offer safe and stimulating physical\nenvironments and trained early childhood development|photo|acumenideas.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kidogo also works to improve the quality of local\nbaby-care through a micro-franchising program that delivers training resources\nand offers support to “mama-preneurs” running their baby-care\ncenters. Their innovative model ensures local women are empowered to start\ntheir child-care micro-enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kidogo helps women caregivers in informal settlements\nwho are passionate by turning that passion into a business. Through the spokes\nProgramme, Kidogo partners with these women to come to a level of quality and\nhelp them become sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kidogo\nalso works with industries<\/a> to set up daycares that help mothers\nin the work setting. This helps improve their productivity as they do not have\nto worry about the safety and well-being of their children from time to\ntime.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To date, there is no proven, financially stable\nchild-care model in Sub-Saharan Africa informal settlements. Kidogo combines\nthe sustainability of early childhood development with gender equality by\nproviding equal opportunities for women in informal settlements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new norm is that the future is female but the\nposition of women in the informal sectors is compromised. It is social\nenterprises like Kidogo that are ensuring that no woman is left behind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cInequalities are linked with poverty and sustainable development, and have patently hindered development and stalled progress. Acting together, these inequalities further entrench the deprivation suffered by certain groups and individuals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}