IUL Children Day Care

With our progressive and holistic early childhood education philosophy, we understand that each child has unique needs and interests. We provide the environment and tools your child needs to thrive to the best of their abilities.

When we expose children to different environments and various learning experiences, we allow them to explore their self-awareness and gain a sense of the world around them. Once they leave Curious children, they’re fully prepared for the next stage of their young lives.

Our Mission

At IUL children nursery, our mission consists of providing a warm and nurturing environment where children feel safe. Our unique Nursery offers various activities that are specifically designed to encourage each child’s growth. Through cooperative play and creative activities, kids reach their social, emotional and physical milestones naturally and with ease.

IUL Day Care provide childcare for children from the ages of six weeks to 5 years. Opening hours vary but an average day nursery is likely to open between 7:30am to accommodate working parents and close at 4pm.

Furthermore, we offer care and education to children aged 2 to 5 years, with sessions lasting from two to four hours. These operate during term time, tend to be smaller settings and may have morning and afternoon sessions.

The Nursery is organised around the ages of children, and often be split into rooms for different aged children. Each room have a lead staff member, and the staff team will tend to remain with the same children.

The nursery management team ensures that each room in the nursery has the right number of qualified staff, depending on the number of children. The ratios all nurseries must work to are outlined in the regulatory frameworks.

Fees

IUL Day Care is very low cost (almost free).

1. Caught between home and the office: Challenges and the way forward for Lebanese working mom

A typical week-day in the life of a woman with a career and children looks something like this: She gets out of bed at 6 a.m. to get her children ready for their day, then goes to work for at least nine hours (often working through her lunch break) before picking up her children from daycare or their grandparents and being fully engaged with them and their needs until they sleep at 8 p.m. She then spends the remaining few hours before going to bed either catching up on small household chores or work, spending some quality time with her husband, or doing things that interest her—and the next day she gets up to repeat it all again.

Although working women share the economic responsibilities of the household with their partners—or as single working moms, or with a partner who is unable or unwilling to contribute, take on the responsibility alone—societal norms still dictate they are the main caregivers of their children and the ones in charge of household affairs. According to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2018, women tend to perform the majority of unpaid tasks—defined by the report as mainly housework and household care. In 29 of the 149 countries included in the report, women spend twice as much time on such activities than men. In Lebanon, a 2018 qualitative assessment conducted by the World Bank revealed that 70 percent of those surveyed said that the wife was responsible for domestic duties.

While the birth of a child is a joyous moment in a woman’s life, for women who work, it also comes with the worry of how to manage everything once their brief maternity leave ends.

2. Day care centers for support.

Factors Related to Breastfeeding Support in Lebanese Day care Centers: A Qualitative Study among Day care Directors and Employees

Day care centers (DCCs) play a crucial role in the social environment of breastfeeding mothers, contributing to the lengthening and continued support of breastfeeding [26–28]. Indeed, it is the setting where children of working mothers spend most of their early years after maternity leave ends. In Lebanon, at least 25% of parents rely on day care center support [29]. Lundquist et al. (2019) highlighted educating DCCs providers about breastfeeding as well as creating supportive policies in DCCs as promising breastfeeding promotion strategies [27]. Furthermore, Marhefka et al. (2019) concluded that breastfeeding friendly childcare centers could contribute to creating a cultural shift towards breastfeeding continuation [28]. However, Mattar et al. (2019) showed very low rates of breastfeeding among children in Lebanese daycare centers. This shows the urgent need for breastfeeding initiation and continuation support, highlighting its importance when considering the elevated risk of recurrent illnesses in children attending day care centers [6].

n view of this worrying situation, determining the supports and constraints for effective breastfeeding support practices in DCCs is a critical step that could assist in designing and implementing targeted interventions and policies aimed at improving breastfeeding support, not only in Lebanese day care centers but also in other countries inside and outside the Middle Eastern region. In a country where healthcare resources are restricted [30], addressing breastfeeding support will benefit the society as a whole, and contribute to optimizing young children’s health in Lebanon. The purpose of this study is therefore to perform an in-depth qualitative assessment of the factors hindering and promoting breastfeeding support in Lebanese day care centers, based on the perspectives of daycare directors and employees.

3. Breastfeeding in the workplace: Good for the mother, child, business and society, ILO.

GENEVA (ILO News) – Global efforts to promote breastfeeding in the workplace are starting to pay off, with more than 65 per cent of countries around the world now having some sort of legislation entitling mothers to either remunerated nursing breaks or a daily reduction of working hours.

But nearly a quarter of all countries still do not provide breastfeeding breaks in the workplace – especially in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean – and this is something that needs to change, says Laura Adatti, the ILO’s maternity protection and work-family specialist.

“Legal information from our maternity protection database shows that increased efforts are needed to convince governments, employers – and sometimes even workers – that combining work and breastfeeding is not only possible but also essential for both mother and child, as well as for business and society as a whole,” she tells ILO News.

Having access to paid maternity leave and information is not enough, adds Addati. A workplace that is “breastfeeding-friendly” provides women with comfortable, private facilities to express breast milk, access to a fridge to store it, a clean and safe environment, as well as day-care facilities and family-friendly working time arrangements for both women and men, if feasible.

The lack of support at the workplace is one of the main reasons why women stop breastfeeding before the recommended time. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this means six months of exclusive breastfeeding and then continued breastfeeding with the addition of nutritious complementary foods for up to two years or beyond.

“Even though the quantity and nutritional quality of breast milk are not affected when the mother is working, it is sometimes difficult for women to continue to breastfeed when they go back to work too soon after giving birth, especially when there is a lack of breastfeeding breaks and facilities at the workplace,” says Addati.

“Lack of longer, compulsory and well-remunerated leave policies for parents and the attitude of employers and colleagues can also be an incentive to stop breastfeeding,” she adds.

Good for businesses

Breastfeeding is not an obstacle to productivity: Research shows that women are more likely to stay in their job in the longer term, if they can breastfeed at work – which is a good way of retaining skilled workers.

Supporting breastfeeding among employees only involves limited costs for employers, both in terms of the employee’s time and the infrastructure that it requires.

Addati gives the example of the Los Angeles Department of Power and Water, which provides a comprehensive breastfeeding programme to support workers, including on-site lactation rooms and flexible scheduling.

A few years after the programme was introduced, health-care claims were 35 per cent lower, 33 per cent of new mothers returned to work sooner than anticipated, absenteeism rates were 27 per cent lower among both men and women, and 67 per cent of all employees said they planned to stay with the company in the long run.

In countries like Belgium and Estonia, breastfeeding breaks are covered by social insurance and public funds. This means that the employers are not directly responsible for them. Such measures improve gender equality at work.

Progress is also being made in developing countries. Addati describes the example of Mozambique.

“Both employers and workers from the tourism industry in Mozambique have benefited from one of our programmes to improve working conditions, which include maternity protection,” says Addati. “It was impressive to see how employers were happy and enthusiastic to witness benefits in terms of lower absenteeism and increased worker retention after deciding to set up breastfeeding facilities.”

Countries such as the Philippines, where the ILO is supporting a joint UN programme on maternity protection and child nutrition, have also extended maternity protection and, in particular, breastfeeding arrangements and lactation stations to informal workers. Other countries – for example India – provide cash transfers to pregnant and nursing mothers if they fulfil certain conditions, including breastfeeding.

“Contrary to a common belief, informal workers also face problems in continuing to breastfeed when they return to work, as they are often unable to take their children with them to the fields, to collect firewood or water or to the employers’ household, in the case of domestic workers. When they do so, it often comes with risks to the child’s health and well-being and may lead to early involvement in child labour,” explains Addati.

The ILO’s role

The ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183)  and its accompanying Recommendation (No. 191)  call for the establishment of an integrated set of essential measures to help initiate, establish and maintain optimal breastfeeding practices. These include:

• Maternity leave of at least 14 weeks paid at 66% of previous earnings, funded by compulsory social insurance or public funds OR 18 weeks with full pay, as encouraged in Recommendation No. 191.
• Prenatal, childbirth and postnatal health care for both the mother and her child and cash benefits for women who do not qualify for social insurance.
• Protection for a pregnant or nursing worker from work which has been determined to be harmful to her health or that of her child.
• The right to return to the same or similar position paid at the same rate and protection from discrimination at work.
• The right to one or more daily breaks or a reduction in working time for the purpose of breastfeeding.