Drive to reduce kids falling from balconies, drowning
sharjah — The Sharjah Child Safety campaign will focus on domestic accidents such as children falling down from the balconies and drowning in residential pools.
Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, chairman of the Child Safety Campaign and director of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, said that their next campaign, for the year 2018, will focus on drowning, child-fall accidents and car seats, which is made mandatory for children under fouryears under the new traffic law, which came into effect on July 1.
She added that the committee members are currently coordinating with the relevant authorities on the preparation of an integrated agenda to realise the campaign objectives of child safety.
Al Yafei recommended the unification of the efforts of all institutions concerned with child safety in the country to work on one annual strategy to reach out to the children in all parts of the country, especially in the the remote areas. She also stressed the importance of including laws of the protection of children’s rights in the school curriculum to educate the students on the issue of child abuse and its causes and consequences.
The committee is also working on making 20 short awareness films and video clips addressing the themes of safety, security and protection of children to be broadcast through social media, mobile cinema in parks, schools and homes.
“The awareness programmes play great role in minimising accidents, for example, the programme titled ‘Your child is your responsibility’ raised awareness among the public about sexual abuse by 87.91 per cent,” she added.
Al Yafei added that the committee is also working on a database of parents and children to be targeted by awareness initiatives.
Yafei reviewed the results of the car seats campaign, which saw an increase from 83 per cent to 89.4 per cent, which showed
The next campaign for the year 2018 will focus on drowning, child fall accidents and car seats... The awareness programmes play great role in minimising accidents.” Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, chairman of the Child Safety Campaign and director of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs
an increased interest among community members to use children’s car seats as a safety measure. She added that it is a positive indicator of how successful the campaign was and how it increased the awareness to ensure child safety while driving.
She explained that in 2011, the wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikha Jawahar bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, president of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs, launched the child safety campaign with an aim to ensure safety from any physical, social or psychological danger. She added that the committee of the campaign selects important topics related to child safety regularly and launches the awareness activities in coordination with authorities concerned. The child safety campaign had focused on importance of maintaining car seats, which resulted in the traffic law amendment that made it mandatory for parents to maintain safety for their children while in cars.
“This car seat awareness campaign, which cautioned parents to use it while travelling with children, continued for more than a year. During our campaign, we distributed nearly 1,000 cars seats donated by Sheikha Jawaher, Chevrolet and AGMC to children in the hospitals, including Al Qasimi, Kalba and Khor Fakkan,” Al Yafei said.
She said that the campaign carried out a number of activities in hospitals, clinics and commercial centres, as well as government institutions and schools, to educate people about the importance of using the child seats in cars.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com