WOMAN OF PASSION: At home with babies

Why would someone leave a good job with a regional bank to spend her days running after toddlers and singing nursery rhymes? This may be the question an onlooker asks themselves the first time they hear Jane Muiga’s story. When asked, she shares that the day she quit employment, was the day she began truly living.

When we pay her a visit at her day care centre in Kahawa Sukari, Nairobi, for this interview, her sentiments prove to be true. It is playtime here and watching her amongst the little ones, it is clear that she is at home. She seems contented. Her happiness radiates. How did she find herself?

“I was in banking for twelve years. First in the legal department and then in mainstream banking. It was good for a while,” she shares.

Working with targets and long hours, it wasn’t easy but she managed to keep the lid on even after having her firstborn daughter. Then she had a set of twins in January 2013 and things started falling apart.

HOUSE HELP DRAMA

“My job was still as demanding, then I started having house help drama. Even when I employed two house helps, I was still never home in time to bond with the children. I wondered when I would ever get to raise my children,” she says.

Driven by her own predicament, she began paying attention to other working mothers around her. She noticed that it was almost impossible to have a conversation with a working mother without talking about child care. Women were clearly struggling. At one time, her boss at the bank came to work with a baby strapped to her back.

The more she stories she heard, the stronger her desire to start a child care facility grew. She started praying about it and researching on all things babies. Then, in August 2014, when her twins were 20 months old, she resigned from her job.

“The morning I handed in my resignation letter, I felt like a load had been lifted off my back,” she speaks of the moment when she walked out of her safety net.

Her husband who had seen her struggle supported her decision. Her friends who’d had to listen as she whined about how exhausted she was month after month, sighed with relief when she gave them the news.

Immediately, she embarked on setting up her dream. Using her savings, she set up a small house in her home compound and then set about acquiring toys and registering the centre.

Unfortunately, she spent the money she had set aside for advertising.

“Two months after walking out of the bank, I opened Babies and Beyond with my twins and four other children.”

Since she couldn’t afford to get word out, Jane resolved to give the best services that she could with the hope that she would get more clients by word of mouth. Today, she knows that there is no better marketer than a satisfied mother as the children under her daily care are never less than 30.

Her target age group is between six months and three years. She doesn’t see a need for a child to be taken from the nanny at home to be brought to another nanny, so she hires teachers trained in early childhood education so that the children can be taught character, life skills and social skills in addition to play.

“Getting teachers who are not only trained but are also passionate about children has not been easy,” she says.

She admits that there were days, especially in the first months when she missed the 25th of each month at the bank when she would be paid without fail. However, comparing both experiences, she is definitely more fulfilled now. She has boarding facilities at the day care centre. Her best day at work so far, she says, was the first day a parent brought in his two-year-old for boarding.

“It was a very emotional moment for me. The beauty of having someone entrust me completely with their toddler was overwhelming.”

She draws satisfaction from seeing herself change the lives of her staff. Her dream is bigger than just babies. Parents of the older children on the programme have already started asking for a kindergarten and she says that she intends to start one.

“I would like to have a primary school in the foreseeable future. For now, I am content spending my days with children. I don’t think that I will ever grow old.”

HOW SHE DID IT:

She was honest with herself to quit when she felt she should.

She had a clear vision of exactly what she wanted to do. This has gone a long way in ensuring her business success.

Research and more research. She made sure she learnt as much as she could about babies and her chosen trade. Knowledge made her go in with confidence.