The Train Them Young Initiative (#2TYI) is the CSR project of Ulomka Multi Solutions run by Ugochi Obidiegwu also known as The Safety Chic. This initiative has trained over 4000 children in Nigeria  and Ghana on different aspects of safety. This is done through direct training, book reading sessions  and  a movie day for teenagers.

In the last few days, the train was in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and students of 5 schools numbering almost 1000 got trained on some aspects of the company’s in-house curriculum on safety for children. The schools who benefitted from the initiative are: Air Force Comprehensive School, St Michael public primary school, Monef Kiddies School, Handmaid Prince of Peace School and St Patrick public primary school. We also got a chance to teach the teachers how to use a fire extinguisher.

According to The Safety Chic, “These are the little things that make me happy. That one day a child would be in a situation and not be stuck because they have an idea of how to protect themselves”.

Would you like to work with us or support us to reach more children? Send a message to Ugochi@thesafetychic.com

We love collaborating.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are 541 million young workers (15-24 years old) globally.  They account for more than 15 per cent of the world’s labour force and suffer up to a 40 per cent higher rate of non-fatal occupational injuries than adult workers older than 25.  They include 37 million 15-17 year olds in hazardous child labour

Many factors can increase youth vulnerability to Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) risks, such as their physical and psychological stage of development, lack of work experience and lack of training, limited awareness of work-related hazards and a lack of bargaining power that can lead young workers to accept dangerous tasks or jobs with poor working conditions.

Personally, while I believe it’s good for the youths to get trained, it’s even better to tackle these issues from the grassroots through prevention strategies. How can we train little children to have the safety mindset? Modifying future behaviour is the way to go and that can be achieved through a conscious Safety Education. What this does for society is:

1) We raise children who are naturally safety conscious as they have imbibed safety habits

2) Our schools get Safety education integrated into the curriculum to ensure a conscious knowledge transfer

3) When young people decide to take on jobs, they can make better choices because they know and understand the implication of unsafe choices to their lives

4) Knowledge is shared within the spheres of influence of these young people

How can we do this?
Asides the traditional way of teaching children, we can add innovation to make learning both fun and enlightening. Story books, movies, games and role play sessions are a great way to go.

#SafetyEducation
#SafetyConsciousness
#2TYI#UN#ILO#SDG8#SDGs
#WorldDayForHealthAndSafetyAtWork
#SafeDay2018#UNICEF#WHO
#SafetyAwareness
#TheSafetyChic
Intentionally grooming a safety conscious generation

Source of statistics: www.ilo.org

As part of its objective to intentionally groom a safety conscious generation, the Safety Chic project – an arm of Ulomka Multi solutions Ltd responsible for raising safety consciousness in people has concluded their East, West, North (EWN) nationwide safety tour, which began on the 28^th September and ended on October 12, 2017.

The tour is in line with their Corporate Social Responsibility programme – Train Them Young Initiative (2TYI) which entails school visitation to teach young people about Health and Safety, to boost Health Safety Environment (HSE) advocacy and increase awareness.

Read the rest of our work featured here

The Adventures of Muna official book launch held on 16th September, 2017 in Lagos. We had representatives from the Office of Education Quality Assurance, Lagos Fire Service and Federal Road Safety Corps. They shared their thoughts on the importance of the book coming at this time. They even suggested ideas for a sequel.

Big appreciation to the major sponsors Aero Contractors, Ulomka Multi Solutions and TeamMasters. Thanks to the agencies who sent their representatives, we are grateful. Sincere appreciation to all donors and invited guests. Because of you we did not just sell books but different organisations will now receive books for kids in their care. Some have received already while the others are enroute destination.

1) Teenpreneurs Hub, Ipaja
2) Kids and Teens Resource Centre, Ekiti
3) Pro Labore Dei, Ibadan
4) Straight Street Initiative, Enugu
5) One African Child, Lagos
6) The Children’s Courtyard, Ikeja GRA
7) Back to School Smile Initiative, Abia @smile_with_me_initiative
8) Beyond the classroom Education

What do your kids stand to gain when they read this book? They will know the answers to the following questions:

1) Do they know the age at which they should sit on the front seat of the car?

2) Do they know what to do when an adult starts touching them inappropriately?

3) Do they know what to do to prevent a fire and how to be safe if it starts?

4) Do they know the family password?

5) Do they know how to protect themselves from falls?

They’d learn this and so much more when they read this storybook.

Would you like kids around you to get this book? Would you like a book reading at your school, church, organisation? Please get in touch ugochi@thesafetychic.com

Teenagers at the Teen Enterprise Week organised by the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan-Atlantic University took part in the Train Them Young Initiative (#2TYI) today. The Train Them Young Initiative seeks to equip young people with basic Health and Safety Skills to lead safer lives: fire safety, road safety, personal safety, first aid. As budding entrepreneurs, the teenagers were taught on different aspects of safety they could encounter in the course of work. They learned how to administer CPR, different techniques to help someone choking, considerations in ensuring fire safety amongst other stuff. This is really important because accidents and other emergencies could occur anywhere and anytime.

Your child also needs to learn these things. There are 4 major reasons they need safety knowledge:

Increased safety consciousness

This always leads to future behaviour modification. Most habits taken into adulthood are learned in childhood. This is why it is important to ingrain safety skills and habits in young people now. Doing this will be beneficial to our collective future as we would be raising young adults who make safe choices easily because it is their second nature.

You will not always be there

No matter how much you love your child, you will not be with the child 24/7. Sometimes, even if you are there you might not be able to make the safe choice either due incapacitation or ignorance. Wouldn’t you want your child to able to save themselves even in your absence? Wouldn’t you be glad that others were saved because your child took the right actions? Do not let your absence put your child at risk, equip them with safety knowledge

They can actually act in an emergency

The fact that children are small does not mean they cannot act in an emergency. Recently, a little girl was in the news because she saved her blind grandmother from a smoke-filled building. She was able to do this with the knowledge she got from a visit to the fire station. Imagine she didn’t know what to do? You guessed right, it would have been a sad story. Do not underestimate children.

They become change agents

Children are very good at spreading information to siblings, parents, friends and all they come in contact with. This leads to change in other members of society and lends credence to the fact that an enlightened society is a safer place for all.

Summer is here again, invite us to teach your children life-saving skills. Send an email to ugochi@thesafetychic.com and we would fit you into the schedule.

Be intentional about safety!

Most of the habits taken into adulthood are things we learned in childhood either positive or negative. This means if we make a conscious effort today to ingrain safety knowledge in our children, we will end up grooming safety conscious adults. The advantage of this is whether they become employers or employees tomorrow, they will ensure health and safety is a part of everyday activities. We would then have created a safer place for our collective future.

Being proactive in child safety is not just about creating a safe environment but also investing in safety education for children and young people. Books, training, games and simulations are ways to consciously input health and safety consciousness in the minds of growing children. We may not always be with the children but knowledge and habits formed will remain with them. This will be the difference between a child who escapes an abduction scenario, who avoids a fire incident, who acts in a medical situation and another who has no knowledge of these things. Where else can we do this if not in schools where they spend considerable length of time?

School teachers, care givers and security personnel also need training on situational awareness to enable them do a good job when children are in their care. These are the people most likely to be around when emergency situations occur. Wouldn’t you prefer a Staff that knows what to do than one waiting to be told what to do? Bearing in mind that time is of the essence in emergency situations. Capacity building should therefore never be underestimated as the right knowledge is power.

How well is the school your child attends performing? You can play your part by encouraging schools to undertake a safety audit. Safety audits present an actual picture of how well a school is performing against set safety standards. There are existing requirements of what would make a school safer than the next one. It’s never too late to start building a safety culture. Engage the services of a professional to help you navigate these waters. It is necessary to have the right policies and procedures that will ensure the safety of children at ALL times. Risk assessments would also be necessary because even though all schools might share similar risks certain factors not limited to location, population, building structure, type of school could change the dynamics of things.

Won’t you rather we have safe schools to protect our kids?

Join us at the #SchoolSafetySummit, let’s chart the course of safety for the Nigerian child. Register here https://tinyurl.com/kjmche7  to join the movement.

The Lagos residents of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), Nigeria Cohort 1 visited the Special Correctional Centre for Boys, Oregun. The visit was intended to give the boys training in specialised areas, provide academic and welfare supplies and inspire them.

I was given the opportunity to provide some aspects of the Train Them Young Initiative (#2TYI) for them. The boys were taught the basics of fire safety, personal safety and road safety. The boys were very intelligent and disciplined. The kind of questions they asked showed an understanding of what they were learning. They also got the chance to thrill us with their talent. They are an amazing lot. Contrary to perception, not all of them are there for wrongdoing. Some are there whilst waiting for the Courts to decide custody between parents or parental decision because of their stubborness and others were rescued from the streets.

Due to the laws at the facility, we couldn’t take pictures with the faces of the kids but back view was allowed. The boys have diverse areas of interest. Some want to be musicians, pilots, engineers and there are a few who can code. Amazing right? We can help the society by helping to keep hope alive for these boys. You could contribute in cash, welfare or academic supplies or better still based on your expertise, mentor them on your career path. Practical lessons are very valuable. Let us work together to help these boys achieve their dreams. Remember, they are going to be re-introduced into the wider society. Do we want wiz kids ready to make impact or do we want societal menace?

One of the major causes of accidents in the workplace is the human factor. This means even if everything functions well: the machines, provision of adequate breaks, presence of proper systems in place, if the individual involved does not comply with safety rules, accidents will still happen. Unfortunately, in this part of the world we tend to say “God forbid” more without putting adequate structures in place. We are not used to complying and it’s no wonder because it is not something that is consciously ingrained in us. From observation, people who are used to complying with safety rules either work in a workplace that takes safety seriously or have family and friends who do so.

However, as we all know, accidents can happen anywhere, any time and on any type of job. It is therefore important to begin to take safety education seriously. The Goal 4 of the SDGs implies that quality education should prepare tomorrow’s work force. Therefore we do not have to wait till people become employees before ingraining safety skills in them. They should be taught from childhood such that it becomes only natural to make the safe choice. It should be a part of the school curriculum because most habits taken into adulthood are mostly developed in the formative stages. This will help us build a society with reduced emphasis on human factor as being the major cause of accidents.

This observation led to the Train Them Young Initiative (#2TYI) started by Ulomka Multi Solutions Limited as a way of giving back to the society. It is done monthly across schools in different locations. Last week, staff of Ulomka Multi Solutions Limited led by Obianuju Nwadialor visited Okota Senior Secondary School, Okota to share some safety knowledge with the students. Students were taught basic safety skills: personal safety, fire safety, road safety and first aid. This is a mission to take safety education to schools and we strongly believe that all students hould have access to it.

Ulomka Multi Solutions Limited was also represented at the Round-table discussion organised by the One African Child Foundation in commemoration of its third anniversary. The event took place at the Mainland High School, Yaba in celebration of the Universal Children’s Day. The Managing Partner, Ugochi Obidiegwu had the opportunity to share her views on the importance of introducing safety education into the school curriculum. She also shared basic information to the students on fire safety.

Would you like your school to be a part of the Train Them Young Initiative (#2TYI)? Send an email to hello@thesafetychic.com

This Summer, we have been at 3 Summer schools.

1. Redeemed Christian Church of God, Rivers of Joy Parish, Maryland, Lagos

2. Slum2School, Makoko, Yaba, Lagos

3. Anifa Preparatory Center, Illupeju, Lagos

It’s been an interesting time sharing knowledge on road safety, first aid, fire safety tips and personal safety with the kids. We look forward to doing more.

If you’d like us to visit a school or summer camp near you for FREE, send an email to hello@thesafetychic.com. We are all about giving you the right attitude by sharing knowledge.