Gribouilli, winner of the first prize in the European Investment Bank Institute’s 2023 Social Innovation Tournament, creates a network of nannies in Paris to share knowledge and experience, promoting inclusion and support.

When Aminata Diouf worked in and around Paris as a nanny, she used to take the kids in her care to the park, and she often spoke with the other nannies who were there with their charges.

“I realised there was a real problem in the sector of at-home childcare,” Aminata recalls. “We were isolated. We all had the same questions and concerns, but there was no structure for us, and no pedagogical programme for the children.” Moreover, their situations were precarious—they all worried about losing their jobs.

Aminata started to wonder: what could be more important than taking care of people’s babies? “We had experience, but why weren’t we valued? Why were we so alone?” She started gathering the names and numbers of her colleagues. And in 2016, after 15 years as a nanny, she politely informed the family she was working for that she was going to leave the profession in order to improve it.

A single mother, she raised three daughters, and when she struck off on her own, two of them joined her. They co-founded a professional association called "Gribouilli" French for “scribbled.”

Aminata’s eldest daughter, Maïmonatou Mar, a doctor in chemical engineering, explains, Gribouilli are lines of colour crossing each other. For us, they represent the lives of the babies, parents and nannies. Each time they cross, they bring more colours.”

Gribouilli won the 1^st Prize in the European Investment Bank Institute’s 2023 Social Innovation Tournament, in the special category for projects developing solutions for sustainable cities and communities.

Helping nannies through networking

According to Maïmonatou, nearly half the nannies in France—about 50 000—live in the Paris region. Almost all are women  over age 40, and usually from America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. They tend to work around 50 hours per week, and some are subjected to slave-like conditions.

Aminata and her daughters created Saturday morning coaching workshops run by experienced nannies, starting with Aminata herself.

At first, they invited the nannies on her contact list to attend. Word of mouth spread quickly, and Gribouilli now reaches 1 500 nannies around Paris. “They send messages on WhatsApp: ‘You have to come Saturday, there’s this thing happening, it’s done by us and it’s very important,’” says Maïmonatou.

When a nanny is unable to pay the annual €20 fee, she can attend the workshops for free.

“It’s important to make sure that anyone in this fragile situation has access to us,” notes Maïmonatou.

The participants discuss their individual experiences and challenges on the job, building shared knowledge through peer-to-peer learning.

At times, outside experts come to talk about topics such as autism, or social issues such as housing. Maïmonatou says, “The process is empowering. Knowledge is power. We don’t do it for them, we help them do it for themselves.”

Providing training to unemployed nannies

In addition to the workshops, Gribouilli runs programmes for unemployed nannies, who learn how to promote their skills, create flyers and business cards, and apply for positions online.

The association holds job dating events, introducing nannies to potential employers. Gribouilli is also developing a tool to assess nannies’ performance at work and provide them with a report card. Maïmonatou says the key is to keep nannies positive and motivated: “Their mental health is fragile. It’s demoralising for them to stay eight years with a family then lose their job, and not know how to value what they’ve been doing.”

The workshops are building up their confidence. Following the autism workshop, several nannies gave their feedback: “I feel privileged to have had this training, and useful.” “I learned so much, I can go out with my head held high.” “My kids are excited to see me now, they see that I’ve changed, and they’re proud of me.”

Being formally recognised

Gribouilli helps parents negotiate at-home childcare, too, since useful information can be hard to find. The association holds free webinars for families and speaks at town meetings about family services.  

The French government estimates that 150 000 parents in the country are unable to work, due to a lack of affordable childcare services.

In 2021, Gribouilli created a cooperative to provide nannies to low-income families, paid for by government social services. The coop is now expanding to a two-tier model that also serves families with the means to pay—Gribouilli sells the service to large companies, who share the cost of nannies’ salaries with the parents. If all goes as planned, the cooperative will eventually bring in enough money to support the non-profit activities, such as the workshops. 

France’s lawmakers recently passed legislation putting all childcare services under one umbrella, and Gribouilli worked hard to ensure that nannies would be included.

 “Nanny care was overlooked, and not really understood,” says Maïmonatou “So the idea is to give it a real place, and show that it is complementary to other childcare services.”

Gribouilli plans to scale to other French cities, with the goal of reaching 10 000 nannies by 2026. But while the association has been steadily growing, financing remains one of its biggest challenges. Until now, it has been supported mostly by public funding, corporate philanthropy, and the time donated by nannies coaching and supporting their colleagues. Maïmonatou says that winning the Social Innovation Tournament was as significant for the prize money as for the show of respect at a European level.

She adds, “The nannies were just amazed. What they’re looking for is recognition, right? They saw the other projects, how they were changing the world. For them to win the prize means that they are at the forefront of change in the world.”