When it comes to your kids and their caretaker, you want to know all is safe and sound at home. But do you know exactly what’s going on when you’re not there? Maybe not, and it might shock you if you knew what happens when you aren’t around.
Almost 2 million households in Nairobi employ nannies, cooks, maids and gardeners. It’s a work force consisting of the poorest, least educated and, sometimes, most vulnerable Kenyans — almost all of whom are women or children.
I hear horror stories sometimes from parents. Their previous nanny experiences make them think that all nannies are lazy, unclean or disorganized. Sometimes I think the issue is the lack of transparency between the mums and the agencies.
Uganda Nanny beating toddler
Remember the monstrous Ugandan nanny who was caught on camera for beating up and stepping on a little girl she was looking after because the little girl vomited while the nanny was feeding her a meal? Well if you didn’t, then this video will show you to what extent nannies can be cruel, brutal and inhumane, and why platforms for training and vetting nannies would be a welcome idea. This could happen anywhere in the world, Kenya is not an exception.
Introducing Yayahub
Yayahub is a service company,currently incubated at the Nailab under season six startups, that provides mums with a platform for them to find reliable domestic workers. Background checks are done on the domestic workers to provide mums with next of kin information and follow up after placement to find out how satisfied mums are with the placement.
Yayahub targets mums who want to have a peace of mind with regards to domestic work and domestic workers.
Violet Nyokabi, the founder of Yayahub describes her journey of looking for a nanny as one that was very tedious and would later on let them go after discovering queer character about them.
“As a working mum with many commitments, finding a good nanny was not always easy. I would get referrals from friends and family and so many times I would get the “the girl is a really good person, and they are humble”. While in real sense as a mum I want to know a bit more history on the person I leave my children with”, says Nyokabi.
She would notice mums’ concerns about nannies on social media as they sought to find out whether the nannies they had found were reliable and/or were in anyone’s bad books. Through this, the idea YayaHub was conceived. ’Yaya’ is Swahili for House help and Yayahub was coined from this as an effective center of house help placement.
How it works
Nannies are registered with Yayahub and once they are placed in a home, a history containing reference from their former employers and work done before is written on them.
A nanny now will have a Resume that best describes her strengths and weaknesses and mums are able to rate their nannies and vice versa using Yayahub. ”Our mission is to get mum and nanny Engagement to a professional level where both parties respect each other and communicate effectively”, says Nyokabi.
Mums are then invited to do interviews for the nannies and Houseboys and when they get the right fit, all parties will sign a contract and engage Yayahub on subsequent follow-up sessions, on a need basis.
What distinguishes Yayahub from other bureaus
Unlike house help bureaus, Yayahub is a platform that mums can trust as it is not just concerned with placing nannies, but also walking a journey with mums helping in assisting with issues that arise during employment, training domestic workers on etiquette and housekeeping and ensuring there is consistency in your home.
When a mum sends away a bad nanny, the nanny will probably end up in another mum’s house who would have no idea of this nanny’s history or what they did that warranted them being chased away. Let’s look at this platform as one where ‘a mum saves another mum’.
Yayahub provides mums with after placement services to find out how mums are coping up with the nannies in order to boost the relationship between mums and their nannies.
Yayahub also offers cleaning services like after party cleaning and on demand cleaners, dog walkers and petty errands.
The prices are very friendly and affordable.
Need a Domestic worker?
Send the name ‘Yayahub’ to 20806 with a description of the kind of person you are looking for at no cost. You will receive prompts of your name and number and you will be contacted back.
Also find them at Yayahub.com or visit their offices at Bishop Magua Centre, Fourth Floor, Ngong Road.
This is vey true and thanks for this article. I am a man but I see my wife really frustrated and change nannies who at some point become really arrogant and feels like they are indispensible. Will visit them and try their services. I believe this is like CRB for Nannies and slowly by slowly we shall all be contributing to getting sanity in the whole process. Awesome idea Nyokabi. Awesome.
Thank you for the comment Robert. We believe Yayahub is better placed to change the perceptions Kenyans have about the whole bureau ecosystem.
It not only important to give a family a nanny that matches their need. it should be a two-way traffic that also the nanny feels comfortable working for that family. both parties must like each other and that way it will prevent the nannies from quitting their jobs. Thus it is not enough if it only the family that is satisfied.