Dubai: Families can now nominate their nannies for the UAE’s Best Nanny award of 2016 by filling out a simple form on Facebook before October 15. The new award aims to recognise the best nannies in the country by giving them a chance to win Dh5,000.
The award was launched by RISE, a startup company that seeks to help migrant workers build a better future through learning and financial inclusion. Through the initiative, RISE is highlighting the issue of nanny welfare and quality.
“Nannies nominated on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GrowWithRise/) get votes through likes on their page with the top ten selected to be interviewed by a panel of experts,” said Padmini Gupta, CEO of RISE. The best nanny in the UAE will be announced on October 22, and the winner will be awarded Dh5,000.
“Nannies form an important part of our families in UAE and play a critical role in childcare and child development. Despite this importance, there is little recognition of their role — both in how can we help them do their job better and how can we help them build a better future,” explained Gupta.
Nannies will be judged by a panel of experts on four dimensions — their ability to build a caring and nurturing environment for the children, their ability to encourage healthy eating habits in the children, their support in child learning and development and their understanding of child safety and emergency handling.
“Nannies spend a lot of time in the background — helping our children and us shine on our big days — be it at work or at home. We wanted to give a platform for the nannies to shine and a way for families to recognise them — by nominating them,” he said.
An informal survey among nannies in the UAE highlighted that a large percentage of them have not disclosed to their families back home that they are working as nannies, added Gupta.
“We have Mothers day, Fathers day, Teachers day – but no nannies day. If we can get even a few hundred families in this country to take a moment to say thank you to their nannies and recognise their role, we would have achieved our objective,” said Gupta.
The campaign, which was launched on October 1 has received more than 10,000 votes and 100 completed entries to date. Rise also reported 500 people who are in progress of completing the form on Facebook.
“Make the nomination heartfelt — add a picture or even better a video, tell the country why you think your nanny is the best and vote early — the more time you and the nanny has to drive likes and votes — the better,” advised Gupta.
