The big day is this Tuesday: 21 additional places open at the Les Lutins crèche in Jodoigne

To complete the preparations, the existing nursery was closed this Monday afternoon. “Even if we opened this morning, it was a question of finalizing the last adjustments and the presence of children would not have been ideal…”

This project was developed over several years. “We first had to obtain authorization for subsidies. It was the Cigogne plan that allowed us to obtain them.”

In Jodoigne, the situation of early childhood is very important for the municipal authorities, they say. “Jodoigne is a city that is developing, there is a certain pressure, especially since the potential for building areas is significant. The APIBW (the Walloon Brabant real estate development agency) is also finalizing a project at La Maladrerie with housing accessible to young households. It is therefore essential to work in parallel with early childhood development. These 21 additional places are added to the others, to now reach 91 municipal places. We also support a private daycare project with 42 places on the Providence site.”

Already existing installations

At this point, open places are allocated. “21 reception places is more than 21 families, not everyone comes full time. However, we have new regular intakes since, from the age of 2.5, the older children go to school.”

Here, the new project is located within the Lutins crèche, in the premises of the old small school in the center. “This is an opportunity for the nursery since we are on site. This allows for an attractive cost reduction. The existing kitchen can cover the additional 21 places. We therefore have two new sections, new toilets, but the medical room and the consultation room already exist. This gives us two municipal establishments to manage with “Le Cocon”, which is geographically quite close.”

Thanks to this opening, three subsidized childcare workers have been hired. “To improve reception and coverage of time slots, the City is making a financial effort to provide quality. This means that a total of five people will be part of this new project.”

Note that the project cost €1,160,000 of work, including €210,000 in subsidies from the Province and €875,000 from the Cigogne plan of the Walloon Region.