They say men cannot multi-task while women can attend to various activities at the same time but when it comes to running of a business and taking care of a child concurrently the saying is tested to the limit as each of the activities requires undivided attention.
Rose Nyakio a trader who sells shoes along Amboseli Road in Namanga border is one of the many women who are grappling with the burden of childcare while at the same time running their business. Her situation is exacerbated by the fact that her business is located along the road.
This Rose says her business is facing by numerous challenges one of them being the burden of childcare, adding that her son occasionally goes about roaming forcing her to leave the business and look for him while leaving behind customers who in many cases do not wait for to come back and attended to them. She goes on to say that some customers are often irritated when the son cries as a result they leave and sometimes she has to breast feed the son in public which she says doesn’t auger well with some customers especially the male ones.
During the interview, she called on Collaborative Centre for Gender and Devlopment (CCGD) to come to her aid and that of many women who shares a similar predicament. She adds that with the childcare facility in place, she will be able to have more time for the business and child care duties will no longer be a hindrance to her business.
CCGD aims to contribute to redistributing the burden of unpaid (child) care work borne by women cross border traders through its partnerships with Ministry of East African Community and Regional Development, University of Nairobi Women Economic Empowerment Hub (UON WEE-HUB), East Africa Civil Society Organization Forum and Uthabiti Africa.
