The Care-Enabled Market Empowerment program
MLC Voyager | Wow Mom Kenya
WowMom Kenya’s innovation is an integrated urban solution that reimagines market centers as sites for both economic production and care provision. The model embeds on-site daycare centers within markets and delivers flexible, tailored financial literacy and economic empowerment training directly to traders a program implemented in partnership with county governments
7,000 Lives Impacted
The impact of the program is evident as the daycare has led to a 72% increase in the number of women bringing their children to work daily as they are able to concentrate on their business while their children receive proper care resulting in a 46% increase in their income. 96% of women also stated that the psychological stress associated with childcare has also decreased as their children are in a safe, clean, and comfortable environment that supports their growth. They are also able to breastfeed their babies on a need basis during the day. 56% of women have reported significant improvement in their children’s health due to proper nutrition training and the prevalence of infection and diseases among children has reduced. The financial literacy program has had 92% participation with all enrolled participants completing the training modules and beginning to apply the lessons instantly. This has enhanced their business earnings. Nairobi County has leveraged on evidence generated in shaping gender and child safeguarding policies.
The Innovation
Wow Mom’s care-enabled empowerment program is innovative as the services are provided within the market centers environment and in partnership with county governments. For the daycare services, the government allocates the space for the daycare establishment while Wow Mom refurbishes with amenities (play and learning amenities) and operate the daycare centers at a daily fee of Ksh 100 per child. The services are provided by trained caregivers who are able to engage the children with play, learning activities coupled with adequate feeding program ensuring that children grow holistically. The financial and economic training program is unique as it alleviates all the structural barriers that have hindered other trainers to penetrate the market centers excluding women traders from these opportunities. Equally provided within the market centers for convenience, the training modules have been tailored for the informal markets and provided in short flexible module to ensure that no woman in left behind. The partnership with the government also increases policy adoption and hence positions Wow Mom as a grassroot champion but also a leader in policy advocacy.
About Wow Mom
Wow Mom is a Kenyan based female-owned and led social enterprise whose mission is to create cities where children grow, learn and thrive. We do this by bringing to attention policies and plans that plague women and children in cities with an aim of developing programs that promote gender equity and inclusion. Through the implementation of our projects, we have on ground experience that enables us to design innovative solutions that empower the women and children in partnership with Governments and policy makers.
