SIBU: Women, Early Childhood, and Community Well-being Development Minister, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said ten workplace nurseries have been established in the state.
She said in complementing the Ministry of Health’s efforts on promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding her ministry had been actively encouraging government or private departments to create nurseries in the workplace.
According to Fatimah ‘Workplace Nursery’ is a very accurate approach to help working parents place their young children under the care of a qualified nursery.
“It also will enable the working mothers to breastfeed their children when it’s time for the baby to be fed. It will be an advantage for them and we will make sure that the nurseries will be the best and safe place for the babies.
“We assure you that every registered nursery under us is safe for your children,” she said when officiating the Sibu Breastfeeding Support Group Convention and World Breastfeeding Week 2022 yesterday.
Fatimah also said that the ministry has been channelling special annual grants (GTK) to the nurseries and kindergartens since 2019 and throughout Sarawak, there are 581 Registered Early Childhood Education Institutions (IPAKK).
“Out of the numbers, 478 are kindergartens with 23,667 students and 103 nurseries involving a total of 1,709 students and since the grant was introduced in 2019 until 2020, the Ministry has channelled a total of RM 43,695,000 in grants to 8,739 IPAKK in Sarawak.
Fatimah also said that in 2022, as of July, a total of 2,798 applications have been received from IPAKK.
“We provide grants amounting RM5,000 to each kindergarten and one of the things that they can use that fund for is to buy a chiller or refrigerator to keep the express milk given by the working mothers.
“This is one of the support systems that we give to the mother who has to go to work and sends her children to registered Taska and Tadika,” she said.
Fatimah also complimented the initiative made by the Ministry of Health by implementing the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) and Baby Friendly Clinic (KRB) in their effort to promote, protect and support breastfeeding in health centers.
“In Sarawak, there are 24 Baby Friendly Clinic (KRB) and 19 Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) have been implemented,” she said.
