UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- As the UN talks about establishing a new "Gender Entity," offering the top post first to Chile's Michelle Bachelet and now a Rwandan minister, Inner City Press is told, it has this month unceremoniously eliminated the after school day care it for years had offered to staff.
"It's hypocrisy," says one impacted working mother. "They talk about work life balance and advancing women, then cut this program on only two days' notice."
The day care, in the UN Secretariat building, was discontinued on June 18. The impacted parent only learned of it on June 16, too late to put up a fight. The rationale is that with the UN's renovation, the day care could only continue out in the "real" New York west of 1st Avenue, where permits would be required.
On June 22 the UN posted this notice on its intranet:
After-school recreation and study programme for United Nations children Posted: Tuesday, 22 June 2010, New York | Author: Department of Management
Because the UN Secretariat building is currently a construction zone, it is not possible to house the After-school Recreation and Study Programme on the premises due to lack of available space. Therefore, we regret to announce, ST/IC/2010/17, that we are not in a position to offer the Programme as of the end of the 2009/2010 school year, and we regret any inconvenience that this will cause to parents.
If we were to move the Programme to a rented building, we would be subject to New York City laws and code compliance. In reality, this means that the children participating in the Programme would have to be housed preferably on the ground floor, but not above the third floor. The child care space would also have to meet a number of other code requirements including certain exit criteria and access to play areas. Such a space is not available at this time. In addition, the operator of this service would have to be fully licensed and certified.
Several readers found the UN's admission that has been below code compliance, and less safe than certified, strange. They point out, for example, that in the UN's DC-1 building on 44th Street and 1st Avenue there is a barely used room next to the third floor cafeteria. "They just don't think this is important," the working mother said. "And yet they're naming a new Gender Entity." She laughed, but bitterly. Watch this site.
