This is my gift to workers in the education space. At no training cost to you, come and learn from safety professionals how to ensure your school is safe school and ready to act in any emergency.

Who should attend?
Parents, Educators and Concerned Citizens

What will you learn
How your school and your child’s school can be prepared for emergencies

Who will you learn from?
Safety Professionals
Government agencies (FRSC, Fire Service, LASEMA, NSCDC, Police, Ministry of Education, Lagos State Safety Commission)
Child Protection Experts

What are you still waiting for? Click link to register
https://goo.gl/vLQXah

#SSS2018
#SchoolSafetySummit
#SafetyEducation
#SafetyConsciousness
#TheSafetyChic
Intentionally grooming a safety conscious generation

In the past two weeks, we’ve touched on aspects in emergency response preparedness: plan, training. The next thing is drills. So you have the plan, your people have been trained but have you tested to see the effectiveness of the plan?

Again, because this is Nigeria, yes, God forbid but just imagine it isn’t forbidden and it actually happens, would your employees, co-workers, visitors know what to do? I’d be using an example in aviation to drive home the point. In the video above, I recently had my recurrency training and drills. This is mandatory for crew every 12 months because of the importance of periodic training. I have had to do this 6 times in the past 6 years. So of course, I do not want to crash land on land or water some day but if that happens, I’ve been prepped with knowledge to ensure we can be located by rescue teams, I know how to ensure passengers are protected from the elements, I know how to sort out food and water options not just for myself but for the passengers in my care and of course administer first aid where necessary. Just in case, you thought it was all about wearing short dresses, heels and lipstick, lol.

In emergency management, your community could be your workplace, locality, neighbourhood, ethnic or faith group. These are the people directly involved when an emergency situation occurs in that particular environment before emergency services respond. A prepared community is an asset in crisis situations as they spring to action using existing resources before professional response services arrive.

So, is your community ready? Are they knowledgeable on the likely emergencies that could occur in their environment? Do they know how to reduce its likelihood of occurrence? Do they know the roles they can play when these emergencies occur? Your chances of recovery from such situations depends on the “strength” of your community.

We have seen cases where citizens have queued up to donate blood to affected citizens in a mass shooting. There are also cases, where citizens have donated relief materials and medical assistance in flood situations. And there have also been cases where co-workers have stepped in to administer First Aid when a colleague suddenly slumped. Community readiness is therefore very important as emergencies can occur at any time. When community members are involved, it builds trust because they feel as part of the process. Are you running a business, a church/mosque, an NGO or a residential estate? When was the last time you had a fire drill, first aid or abduction drill? Did you just say it’s not my portion? We cannot continue like that without proactive measures.  You most definitely need participation of your members in safety matters. Gather knowledge, disseminate information, create roles, know strengths, resources and weaknesses of your community and leverage on them, teach practical actions to take and provide contact details for response agencies. This will go a long way to keep the community ready to act when emergencies occur.

Sometimes when people hear this question, they think of fire extinguishers and safety hats. There’s a whole lot more to safety than that as we would get to see. No one wants to leave a workplace worse than when they got the job. Safety in the workplace is ensuring that workers leave work as whole as they entered, no broken bones and no health challenges (cancer, back pain, repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) etc.) We understand that some jobs entertain certain risks but that is why we are here to help you navigate your risks and reduce them as much as is reasonably practicable.

Safety in the workplace would start from answering basic questions such as: how many exits are available? Is there proper ventilation and lighting? Is the work station properly arranged? How comfortable and convenient are the seats available for the duration of employee’s stay per day? Is there access to drinking water, toilet facilities etc? How is rest period decided? Is there a safe way of performing the job? Is it being followed?

These questions may seem sort of  easy until we get to the part of emergency response procedures where we would need to answer questions such as: What are the procedures in the case of a fire incident? Are fire extinguishers available? Who would be the firefighters? Where is the muster point? What actions are employees expected to take? Or in the case of a medical emergency: Is there a first aid kit? Who are the first aiders? Are they sufficiently trained? What is the contact details of the primary health care centre? There is a whole lot more of such questions, some are general while others are more specific to the particular workplace.

One might think “God forbid”, ” It’s not my portion” but really, whose portion is it? Inasmuch as we are in a religious part of the world, we still need to play our part to keep our businesses safe. Remember, it’s only if the business exists that there is a chance to turn a profit. More so, people would be more likely to work with a safe business than one known for broken bones and various ailments.

Today, ask yourself, Is my  business/workplace safety compliant?