A large group of parents and children have gathered in Reykjavík City Hall to protest the situation in relation to daycare for young children in city preschools in August and September. They feel that election promises made by the parties prior to the elections in May to provide daycare for all children from 1 year old have been broken.  In Reykjavík 700 young children are waiting to get into daycare centers within the preschools.   

In Iceland the  parental leave ends after 12 months and daycare other than preschools is hard to find resulting in a situation where some parents with young children are not able to return back to work after parental leave and are even in danger of losing their jobs if they don’t.  

The group has visited the city hall several times since the city council came back from summer holidays on 11th August, the council responded to their request with “Bridge the Gap” initiative a week later on the 18th that they have now started to implement after some follow up visits and negotiation with the parent group. This is an excellent demonstration about how democracy can work and how to be an active citizen. 

Resources: 

 Hallgerður Kolbrún E. Jónsdóttir. (18.08.2022).  Foreldrar og börn bíða aðgerða í leikskólamálum. Vísir. https://www.visir.is/g/20222299256d/mynda-veisla-for-eldrar-og-born-bida-ad-gerda-i-leik-skola-malum

Erla María Davíðsdóttir. (06.09.2022). Mættu með börnin og kröfðust svara: „Við þurfum festu og hraða“. Fréttablaðið. (https://www.frettabladid.is/frettir/maettu-med-bornin-og-krofdust-svara-vid-thurfum-festu-og-hrada/