Teachers from about 80 kindergartens in Guangzhou, the capital
of south China's Guangdong Province, attended on Monday a
special training program at Guangzhou Children's Hospital to help
reduce the number of accidents involving children.
The program was organized by Safe Kids Worldwide, a non-profit
organization dedicated to preventing children under the age of 14
from suffering accidental injury.
This is the first time that kindergarten teachers have taken
part in a home safety course. They will now go on to help train
more than 25,000 parents across the city.
Statistics indicate that about 330,000 children are injured in
accidents in Guangzhou annually, compared to 270,000 in Beijing and
250,000 in Shanghai.
More than 40 percent of unintentional injuries suffered by
children happen at home, according to Martin R. Eichelberger,
president and chief executive officer of Safe Kids Worldwide.
He added: "Home safety training should never be neglected.
Prevention is much more cost-effective than treatment."
"What Safe Kids Worldwide has done is to minimize the risk of
injuries to children in all of its 16 member countries, including
China."
He said the group has planned a range of other initiatives, such
as winter vacation safety and fire prevention programs, across
China.
Chen Jialin, the father of a four-year old boy in Guangzhou,
said that his son can be very mischievous, and that he had been
waiting a long time for training opportunities related to
children's safety.
In late March, Safe Kids Worldwide and international logistics
company FedEx launched a pedestrian safety campaign at an
elementary school in downtown Guangzhou.
The campaign aimed to improve children's awareness of the need
to take care while walking near roads.
It also called for improvements of the traffic environment in
communities where primary schools are located.
Among the main causes of injuries to children are traffic
accidents, fires, bites, poisoning, electric shocks, suffocation
and drowning.
Meanwhile, kindergartens across Guangzhou have stepped up
security in general in the wake of the fatal arson attack at a
kindergarten in central China's Henan Province last week.
Three children died and 13 were injured in the blaze, which took
place in the village of Shiguan, Gongyi City.
A 19-year-old man was later arrested in connection with the
arson.
"All the kindergartens in the city have since been urged to
strengthen safety measures and on-campus management," said Wang
Yulan, a kindergarten teacher in Guangzhou.
(China Daily May 16, 2006)