A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it.
Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child.
The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages.
Photo: AFP
“The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes difficult to find adequate care for children. We wanted to give the parents the possibility to choose the type of care for their children.”
In Croatia, most women use 12 months of maternity leave, although state-funded childcare is available from the age of six months until the child enrols at primary school at age six.
However, there are not enough places in public kindergartens, which are run by the authorities at the local level, meaning several thousand children miss out every year.
Photo: AFP
The problem is most acute in major cities, particularly Zagreb, and many working parents face a choice between paying for a private kindergarten or a nanny out of their own pocket — or asking their own parents to help.
The “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” based on a similar model in Sweden, is open to children aged four or younger.
Grandparents apply for the measure, which was introduced in late March, every month. Twenty-eight people have so far applied.
Dubravka Koletic, 60, was one of them. She praised the move as “very positive for both grandparents and grandchildren.”
“We get some additional euros, which is good since our pensions are low, and spend a lot of time with our grandchildren,” she told reporters as she played with her 18-month-old grandson Viktor in a park.
In Croatia, the average pension amounts to about 550 euros a month.
“Also, we are becoming even closer,” Koletic added.
Her daughter, Danijela Koletic, is also happy even though Viktor did not get a place in a public kindergarten.
“This is really great, it’s easier to leave such a small child to someone you trust, while Viktor and his grandmother will further deepen their bonds,” said the 41-year-old economist, who has two other children.
Samobor, which is home to about 37,000 people, has two kindergartens with several smaller sites, providing care for more than 1,300 children.
However, last year, more than 100 children missed out, especially those aged 18 months or younger.
Josipa Milakovic, who runs the Grigor Vitez kindergarten, called the initiative “a helping hand for parents, providing help in care for the youngest ones in a family surrounding.”
Skrobot said that counterparts from across the country had contacted her to express an interest in the scheme.
EU member Croatia, which has a population of 3.8 million people, is facing a demographic crisis, with low birthrates, an aging population and emigration.
UN projections estimate that by the end of the century, the population will have fallen to just 2.5 million.
However, Samobor has bucked the trend and its population has increased, notably with young families seeking a more tranquil setting close to Zagreb.
Primary school class numbers were exceptionally filled last year while numbers of students enrolled dropped elsewhere.
FORUM: The Solomon Islands’ move to bar Taiwan, the US and others from the Pacific Islands Forum has sparked criticism that Beijing’s influence was behind the decision Tuvaluan Prime Minister Feletei Teo said his country might pull out of the region’s top political meeting next month, after host nation Solomon Islands moved to block all external partners — including China, the US and Taiwan — from attending. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting is to be held in Honiara in September. On Thursday last week, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele told parliament that no dialogue partners would be invited to the annual gathering. Countries outside the Pacific, known as “dialogue partners,” have attended the forum since 1989, to work with Pacific leaders and contribute to discussions around
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
Outside Havana, a combine belonging to a private Vietnamese company is harvesting rice, directly farming Cuban land — in a first — to help address acute food shortages in the country. The Cuban government has granted Agri VAM, a subsidiary of Vietnam’s Fujinuco Group, 1,000 hectares of arable land in Los Palacios, 118km west of the capital. Vietnam has advised Cuba on rice cultivation in the past, but this is the first time a private firm has done the farming itself. The government approved the move after a 52 percent plunge in overall agricultural production between 2018 and 2023, according to data
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
RSS