While schools have been tasked with taking care of the children of health professionals engaged in the fight against the novel Coronavirus, municipalities have now been asked to chip in and organise day care in their respective areas.
The Minister for Children of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB), Bénédicte Linard (Ecolo), in collaboration with the regional ministers of Local Government, on Saturday called on the communes to organise a day-care service for the children, in collaboration with their ATL (Out-of-School Activities) coordinators.
Like teachers, ATL staff are today running day cares, and are in constant contact with children. Involving them is thus in line with the health standards recommended by the National Safety Council. Whenever children are grouped together, that will be done in strict compliance with the recommended rules of hygiene, the minister said.
All the actors concerned, along with the schools, have received a letter informing them that their subsidies are being maintained and asking them to work with the communes in organising day care during the Spring Holiday.
Ms. Linard is scheduled to meet their representatives on Tuesday to discuss their situation during the Coronavirus crisis.
“In the context of this unprecedented health crisis, if school cannot be a solution, we are relying on local elected officials’ sense of responsibility and their capacity to deploy, on their territory, the necessary solidarity that needs to be shown to the men and women who are fighting the epidemic daily,” the minister said.
The Brussels Times
