Once a proud network of five, only one 31st December Day Care Centre in Kumasi remains alive today.
The centres, established under the leadership of late former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings through the 31st December Women’s Movement, were created to support working mothers and promote girl-child education.
In the 1980s and 1990s, they symbolised hope. A place where women could work with peace of mind, knowing their children were safe and learning.
Today, that legacy has mostly withered. The other four centres at Ash Town, Adum, Asawase, and Sawaba have all collapsed.
Some of their structures have been taken over as residences; others have simply vanished, overtaken by time and neglect. In some places, it is impossible to tell that a school once stood there.
At Ash Town, the site of one of the closed centres, the environment tells its own story.
The headmistress of a nearby school, Ash M/A Kindergarten, Mrs. Charity Agyeman Duah, said the decline began when the area’s poor sanitation drove parents away.
“It’s no more functioning so most parents brought their wards here. I personally wouldn’t take my ward to where there is a refuse dump, so I’ve written letters to stakeholders to assist. I wish they can be able to do something about it,” she pleaded.
At Bantama, the only surviving centre continues to operate up to Junior High School Three (JHS 3).
Teachers there, refusing to speak on camera, mentioned the pride about keeping the founder’s vision alive, even as they admit the challenges of doing so with limited support.
The survival of the Bantama centre feels less like success and more like remembrance. A final testament to what the 31st December Women’s Movement once stood for; where laughter once echoed across five communities, only one still rings.
The loss of these centres is more than the decay of buildings. It is the slow passing of a legacy, a dream built for women and children, now largely forgotten.