Datakids crèche inaugurated

Daily Graphic, Pg 11. Tues. March 23/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
MOST nursing mothers, after their maternity leave, find it difficult adjusting to their normal work schedules, since they have to leave their babies in the care of grandparents, other relatives or nannies.
This makes the transition back to work after maternity leave very frustrating and unpleasant, most especially for mothers who are not comfortable with the people they leave their babies with.
Some are forced to take their babies to the crèche at an early age and this also puts the babies at risk of contracting various infections and diseases.
Although most workers relish the idea of a crèche in their offices where they can take their babies and drop in intermittently to either breast-feed or check on them, not many see the idea as materialising in their companies.
The staff of Databank Financial Services in Accra are, however, lucky to have a crèche to cater for the needs of nursing mothers who resume work after their maternity leave.
Built by the management of the bank, the Datakids Crèche, which started operating in September last year, is being manned by a retired nursing officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, Captain Nana Adams (retd), and three supporting crèche tutors.
Presently, the crèche has 14 children, made up of eight toddlers aged between eight months and two years and four pupils who drop in to wait for their parents after they close from school.
Interestingly, at the Datakids Crèche, not only mothers who work at the bank drop in their babies but also fathers whose wives work in other companies where the facility is non-existent also drop in their babies to enable their mothers to have their peace of mind at their various workplaces.
The Datakids Crèche is fitted with a kitchenette and a washroom and the babies are fed with food which their parents pack for them and they are bathed whenever necessary and also just before they are picked up.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Databank, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, who was at the opening ceremony of the Datakids Crèche, said the project was one of the Databank’s means of ensuring that its workers worked in a comfortable environment.
He said the need for the crèche became necessary when the company realised that it was necessary to meet the needs of its staff to boost productivity.
According to him, the establishment of the crèche within the premises of the company would help attain that objective, since nursing mothers would have the peace of mind to work.
He said if all companies began to put the interest of their employees’ children at the centre of their businesses, the country would begin to cherish its children and that would help make the work of women easier.
The Head of Human Capital and Administration at Databank, Mrs Felicia Gyamfi Ashley, said the company also offered a week’s paternity leave for men whose wives were delivered of babies, saying that enabled the fathers to offer their wives the needed services within the period.
She said Databank had the interest of the family at heart and that in celebrating 20 years of its existence, it saw the crèche as a more appropriate opportunity to cater for the interest of nursing mothers who were staff of the company.
The Crèche Mother, Captain Nana Adams (retd), said with her expertise as a former nursing officer, she was able to offer relevant advice to the young mothers and fathers who brought their children to the crèche, as well as ensure that they were properly taken care of.
She said the Datakids Crèche admitted children from birth to six years when they were ready to be integrated into the formal school system.
A father whose baby has, since the start of the crèche, been benefiting from services provided by the centre, said the facility had been a blessing to him and his wife who also worked in another bank.
The father, Mr Emmanuel Quarm, said his wife had to start work a month after delivery and putting the baby in the crèche had been more of a blessing than they had expected.
According to him, he now worked with a free mind, since he did not have to think of the safety or otherwise of his baby.
Mrs Sophia Quarm said the crèche could not have been established at a better time.
She said the place had been of tremendous help to her as a new mother, since she also learnt a lot from the Crèche Mother.