Three childcare centres in seven years

Three childcare centres in seven years

Jemma never imaged seven years ago that she would now own and manage not one but three child care centres, manage a farm, while juggling being a wife and mother of four children.

You could be forgiven for calling her superwoman. But for her it was all about realising a gift and being able to give children the opportunity to realise theirs.

It all started when she was working part time at a day care centre and realised how much she loved working with children. She decided to get formal early childhood education qualifications and opened her first centre based in her home with 15 children.

With growing numbers and the continuing demand on her roll she opened Country Educare in 2000 with 20 children on the roll. This demand only kept growing, so in 2002 she bought a second centre that now cares for a further 27 children. Then in 2005 she opened a third centre to be able to take a further 25 kids. In total her centres care for more than 70 children in the Horowhenua district. The demand for her centres speaks for itself.

I had to ask her how did she manage all this plus a farm, four of her own children, study, caring for 60+ sheep, 7 horses, pigs, dogs and cats not to mention keeping sane. Her answer was, ‘I have a great team of people who work with me, who love children and believe in the philosophy of providing a home environment within a day care setting as much as I do’.

Jemma says, ‘Every child like every person has a passion, you just have to find it and when they find their passion there is nothing they cannot do’.

ENDS

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