Ms Maryam Maulid, a care taker, says she has been caring for infants from the date of birth to age of three years. She mentions that in 13 years of her work the big challenge has been getting used to newborn baby.

Another caring mother Ms Khadija Hussein mentions other challenges as delay of mothers to pick-up their children on time at the end of the day. The caring mothers say they love and value their work of caring for children, and think it is part of their responsibility to help develop children.

Ms Bishara Thaniani is an expert in childhood care and development in Zanzibar she gives her views about child care in Zanzibar , ‘many children do not get proper care. It is high time children caring centres are established.’

However, the government in collaboration with save-the-children has started sensitizing programme which pays particular attention to early childhood care and development, since ‘research shows that the first three years of life are the most critical for a child's physical, social, emotional and cognitive development.’

The majority of children between birth and four years to do not access to quality early childhood care and learning. Formal and regulated day-care centres and pre-schools only reach few children from wealth families in the urban.

Early childhood development (ECD) is the foundation of human development. A focus on the young child and holistic ECD provides an opportunity for sustainable human development, economic growth, social change, and transformation in Africa . To that end, countries need to develop ECD policies that will guide strategic decision making and resource allocation, Mr Abdallah Mzee from the ministry of education says.

Like in many African, Zanzibar societies value children and place them at the centre of their family life and communities, and also over many decades, governments have declared the importance of children in their development efforts and have devoted considerable resources to child development, especially in education and health.

But, Mr Mzee says lack of understanding of, and support for, children in care lies behind their continuing struggle to achieve their full potential at school, leading experts in education and social care, lack of recognition of the additional needs of children in care means they often don't get the extra support they need, ‘this leads to them feeling isolated within the education system.’