In Mexico, around 3.5 million households with children between 1 and 4 years old (i.e., more than 50% of all households with children in this age range) do not have access to public childcare centres and cannot afford private care. Mothers either do not work while their children are young or they work leaving their children in the care of relatives, neighbours or friends, or in some cases they end up taking children to work. In January 2007, the Mexican government launched a national child day-care programme - Programa de Estancias Infantiles para Madres Trabajadoras (PEIMT) -which aims to provide parents in paid work and/or study with access to child day-care services.