Croatian town pays grandparents for childcare

A Croatian municipality has travel up with a caller solution to lick the dilemma of moving parents erstwhile determination are nary nationalist childcare spaces available: wage grandparents to bash it.

Samobor, adjacent the superior Zagreb, has go the archetypal successful the state to tally a "Grandmother-Grandfather Service", which pays 360 euros ($400) a period per child.

The strategy allows grandparents to apical up their pension, but the authorities besides anticipation it volition boost household ties and tackle societal isolation arsenic the colonisation ages.

"The benefits are multiple," Samobor's mayor, Petra Skrobot, told AFP.

"Pensions are alternatively debased and for parents it is sometimes hard to find capable attraction for children.

"We wanted to springiness the parents the anticipation to take the benignant of attraction for their children."

In Croatia, astir women usage 12 months of maternity leave, though state-funded childcare is disposable from the property of six months until the kid enrols astatine superior schoolhouse astatine property six.

But determination are not capable places successful nationalist kindergartens, which are tally by the authorities astatine the section level, meaning respective 1000 children miss retired each year.

The occupation is astir acute successful large cities, peculiarly Zagreb, and galore moving parents look a prime betwixt paying for a backstage kindergarten oregon a nanny retired of their ain pouch -- oregon asking their ain parents to help.

The "Grandmother-Grandfather Service", based connected a akin exemplary successful Sweden, is unfastened to children aged 4 and under.

Grandparents use for the measure, which was introduced successful precocious March, each month. Twenty-eight radical person truthful acold applied.

- 'Deepening bonds' -

Dubravka Koletic, 60, was 1 of them. She praised the determination arsenic "very affirmative for some grandparents and grandchildren".

"We get immoderate further euros which is bully since our pensions are low, and walk a batch of clip with our grandchildren," she told AFP arsenic she played with her 18-month-old grandson Viktor successful a park.

In Croatia, the mean pension amounts to astir 550 euros a month.

"Also, we are becoming adjacent closer," Koletic added.

Her daughter, Danijela Koletic, is besides blessed adjacent though Viktor did not get a spot successful a nationalist creche.

"This is truly great, it's easier to permission specified a tiny kid to idiosyncratic you trust, portion Viktor and his grandma volition further deepen their bonds," said the 41-year-old economist, who has 2 different children.

Samobor, which is location to astir 37,000 people, has 2 kindergartens with respective smaller sites, providing attraction for much than 1,300 children.

But past year, much than 100 children missed out, particularly those aged 18 months oregon younger.

Josipa Milakovic, who runs the Grigor Vitez kindergarten, called the inaugural "a helping manus for parents, providing assistance successful attraction for the youngest ones successful a household surrounding".

Skrobot said counterparts from crossed the state had contacted her to explicit an involvement successful the scheme.

European Union subordinate Croatia, which has a colonisation of 3.8 cardinal people, is facing a demographic crisis, with debased commencement rates, an ageing population, and emigration.

UN projections estimation that by the extremity of the century, the colonisation volition person fallen to conscionable 2.5 million.

Samobor, however, has bucked the inclination and its colonisation has increased, notably with young families seeking a much tranquil mounting adjacent to Zagreb.

Primary schoolhouse people numbers were exceptionally filled past twelvemonth portion numbers of students enrolled dropped elsewhere.

ljv/phz