Child Care for the under 3 Year Old Children: Experiences from Lesotho

Lesotho, like many developing countries, experiences challenges in providing quality early childhood services for children below 3 years of age. No formal education programme for children aged below 3 years exists yet, except the informal daycare centres run by inexperienced child-minders. At this tender age, the focus for child development and care must focus on child protection, healthy stimulation nutrition and health. Realizing the need for quality child services for the age cohort, Catholic Relief Services Lesotho introduced a programme named Whose Child is This? (WCIT) that focuses on provision of quality services for the children. This chapter shares Lesotho's experiences in addressing delivery of quality informal early learning environments. A case study of one daycare centre in the Maseru Industrial settlement was undertaken focusing on practices and services rendered to children aged below 3. New lessons learned were the need for partnerships among agencies serving children's needs, and collaboration with parents strong advocacy for implementation of the Nurturing Care Framework is critical for all ECCD service providers. Institutions of higher learning need to step forward to produce research evidence on importance of strong foundations for children aged below 3 years.