Award Winning UK-born children’s service provider, Nina Khan is a ‘Special Person’

Dec 11, 2022 News

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Unwavering in her goal to provide the best childcare outcomes… 

By: Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – While most Guyanese marvel at an opportunity to live in a foreign more developed country, there are still many persons who are gladly willing to trade places with us for warm weather, fresh fruits and vegetables, and natural landscapes.

This is the case of UK-born, Nina Khan. She first fell in love with her adopted homeland more than two decades ago and ever since, she has made it a goal to do her “tiny bit,” and utmost best, to contribute to the development of Guyana.

This week’s Special Person is a certified and celebrated childcare professional, Nina Khan.

Mrs. Khan holds several awards from the UK’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services, and Skills OFSTED for her work with children.

Given her vast experience, Khan has spent the past decade building a daycare facility that she operates out of her Grove, East Bank Demerara home.

She told Kaieteur News that the daycare facility in Guyana forms part of her dream has been a long time coming.

 

Khan said “I have always wanted to work in childcare in Guyana. I got trained in the UK and I started working with kids there, my childcare group won a couple of awards there, but I always wanted to open a facility in Guyana, after I came here for the first time with my husband.”

The daycare proprietor recalled that the first time she came to Guyana in August 1990. She said, “I instantly fell in love with this place.”

Khan listed her reasons. She loves the natural beauty of Guyana and the fact the love of her life, her husband, the late Mohamed Ashraf Khan whom she called ‘Az’ was born here.  At the time, she said her beloved “Az” was alive and they explored as much of the country as they possibly could. Three years ago she lost her beloved husband.

It was then that she made up her mind that she would return here to live. She explained “Guyana is a naturally beautiful place, it is not congested with huge concrete buildings, nature was still intact, but I saw some things that troubled me. In some places, I saw children selling sweets on street corners to help their parents. I thought to myself children should never have to do that.”

It was then, that Mrs. Khan decided that on her return to Guyana, she would open a childcare facility.  She said that the dream took more than a decade to materialize due to some unforeseen circumstances but she stayed with it because it is something she always wanted.

Today, her facility caters to between 15 t0 20 preschoolers and toddlers each week.  Reflecting on her journey, the UK-born childcare professional is happy she never gave up on her lifelong dream.

LITTLE IRCHESTER

Khan grew up in a little village called Little Irchester which is in the Midlands.

Her grandparent Elizabeth and Charlie took care of Nina and her twin sister, Madeline while their mother Jane went to work– she was a single parent.  Khan whose maiden name is Marlow said, “It was a strict upbringing in those days.”  She recalled, “When I was at Secondary school I wanted to stay on to study childcare, but my grandmother wanted me to leave school and get a job, which she found for us.”

The teenage Khan protested against going to work, because she really wanted to finish her studies to become a childcare professional, but it was to no avail.

She said, “I was told by my grandmother that studying childcare would not make the kind of money that I would make in the coat factory, because we had needed the money urgently and there were no other means of getting it…”

As such, a very disappointed Khan and her twin sister went to work in the coat factory.  She said, “I was crushed but I understood that my family needed the support.”

YOUNG LOVE

Mrs. Khan didn’t know it then, but she would later thank her grandmother for sending her away to work, because it was in that very coat factory that she met the love of her life.

“That was where I met my husband who was from Guyana; he was born in Wakenaam…He was the Supervisor at the coat factory. If anyone believes in love at first sight that was me.

 

He was a handsome man, a lot older than me, but I didn’t care, I fell madly in love with him. I was only 16 at the time,” she recalled.
She also recalled too that her husband also helped her out tremendously.

“I could not sew to save my life and every time I sewed and sent it to the front they would come back for me to fix it. My husband sat on the machine opposite us and he would help us in a big way, because he was a tailor, he would sew for us so we could get our wages,” she revealed.

Khan told this newspaper that despite being madly in love with her then fiancé their decision to marry faced some serious opposition from her family.

 

“For many reasons, they said, they couldn’t accept the relationship—‘he was much older than me, not English, of another race.’ My grandmother hit the roof when she found out; she called the priest and made me do confession that I would not see him again,” she said.

However, determined to stay together, the couple ran off, on one lovely sunny day in Croydon, and got married. The marriage produced two children, a daughter, Nicola, who was born one year later, and a son Darren, born four years later.

CHILDCARE ACCOLADES

A couple of years after being married and becoming a parent, Mrs. Khan decided to give her dream another chance.  She decided in August 1981 to open her house to children whose parents go to work.

“I took up studying childcare to improve my knowledge of children, including special needs courses,” Khan said.

 

In 2006, she won an award for Inclusive ‘Childminder of the Year’ in which a parent of an Autistic boy put her up for a nomination.

In 2007, Khan gained an ‘Outstanding grade’ from the English Government body — OFSTED, and then in 2011, she gained an ‘Outstanding Grade’ for the second time.

The latter award was achieved after; she decided she was coming to Guyana to open a daycare. She said her plans were delayed after her husband suffered a serious car accident but she continued to study.

The childcare professional revealed, “I did more studying and gained a ‘Foundation Degree’ with Open University where I graduated on Saturday, September 23, 2011, and moved to Guyana the next day.”

She admits “There were times that I wanted to give up childcare as it does have its challenges, such as parents not being happy, whether in the UK or here in Guyana, but I came through and still working in my daycare which it is in Grove Housing Scheme.”

Knowing that she is pouring into young children and assisting their growth while their parents work, helps Mrs. Khan, stay motivated.

She said almost every night, I go to bed late making something for the kids, “Whether it is a Christmas Them

e which is ‘The Gingerbread Man,” Gingerbread Houses from cardboard boxes, or giant candy from paper plates. A big Christmas Party has been planned for the kids in the daycare and also neighbours’ children, where I have to be Mrs. Clause.”

 

CANCER TREATMENT ADVOCATE

Outside her work with children, Mrs. Khan is big on raising funds to help fight cancer. She said when I was in the UK I did lots of charity work for ‘Breakthrough with Breast Cancer UK’-a Charity.

She revealed “I chose this charity because my Aunty Madge who was my mum’s twin sister passed away in August 2000 with cancer. Her focus is not just on breast cancer, but on other cancers too.  I have done lots of walks for this charity such as a 60KM, and 5KM Race for Life, but my biggest walk was walking the Great Wall of China, that was the highlight of my life.”

In addition to the cancer walks, Mrs. Khan also put her baking skills to work to help raise funds for this worthy cause.

She recalled,” It was back in March 2010, I had to raise a lot of money so I set out to do fundraising events, Beauty/Massage sessions, Pink Days etc., but most of the money I raised was baking muffins, muffins galore, every week I would make about bake 150 muffins to sell at childcare groups.”

Her work to raise awareness about cancer did not end in the UK; Mrs. Khan also participates in the annual Breast Cancer Awareness month activities every October here in Guyana.

 

 

 

 

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