happy young boy with thumbs up at YMCA day care

15 September 2020

Saba Yafi felt compelled to pen her thoughts on how wonderful the YMCA nursery staff have been during this lockdown. Both her husband and Saba are frontline key workers. In addition to this, Saba’s parents are elderly with numerous co-morbidities which means that they are unable to provide help with childcare at this time.

Saba says “if it wasn’t for the YMCA [my husband and I] would have been unable to work, and with an already stretched NHS service, this would have impacted patient care”.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us during this pandemic. I also need to thank you for being flexible with your service. At the height of the wave my unit ran on a skeleton service due to sickness, at the last minute you changed my son’s nursery hours so that I could work additional hours and support my unit – I can’t even begin to imagine what would have happened if I was unable to work!”

 Saba went on to say that the pandemic however, had not in any way compromised the nurturing, educational and supportive exemplary environment that YMCA created for her child. She said that when the world went loco, YMCA shielded her child without compromising on safety. Zakariyya is now proficient at hand washing and aware of good hygiene practices, the nursery staff also introduced Zakariyya to various kinaesthetic and visual activities to promote comprehension of germs such as using pepper (germs) and a milk medium and getting the child to dip their finger in soap and watch the repellence.

Saba said “it was such a simple concept but enabled my son to fully appreciate the importance of hand washing”.

Saba also loved the creation of giant bubbles with hoops so that Zakariyya learnt about special awareness.

She said: “You make learning so much fun and promote the wellbeing in my child.  The YMCA created cohorts/bubbles of kids and staggered departure and arrival times which meant that potential viral exposure was contained and reduced, and it gave me considerable peace of mind as a parent to watch this so well managed. I simply can’t fault you other than to say that you’ve made it so much harder for us all to say goodbye in September! Thank you all again and please don’t change because you have the winning formula”.