How you do small things determines how you’d do big things.

I’m sad that avoidable safety incidents and accidents keep reoccurring in this country. No child should be put in harms way because of Education. As I always say to educators, no one sends their child to school to die or get injured.

We’ve got to become more PROACTIVE about our safety in this country irrespective of our areas of expertise. Accidents affect all of us directly and indirectly. You can be hit directly, you can be a passerby, you can be a victim of a stray object, you can lose your business, your route to an important interview could get blocked, your business contact might be the victim….

Do you see what I mean?

DETAILS matter in ensuring the safety of all. From plane crashes to building collapse to molestation and even abduction. When making decisions, ask yourself, can this decision hurt someone directly or indirectly?

Last week at the #SAFE4MeConference2018 I spoke on situational awareness and how it keeps us safe. After that a parent spoke to me about an incident where the driver of a car stepped down to do something and some other people came into the car and drove away. There was a child in the car who had been playing on a mobile device but she saw when the people entered the car and knew this wasn’t their family driver. Eventually she got saved. Imagine all that could have gone wrong in this scenario?

We are officially winding down the year and have entered the festive scene as you can see from the build up of traffic in some areas. This is also the time a lot of miscreants try to play a fast one on unsuspecting citizens. Can we totally stop them? Maybe not but we can become more situationally aware on our roads and reduce our eligibility of falling prey

Here are some tips
1) Do not leave children unattended in the car. Asides the fact a thief/kidnapper can drive off with them in the car, if they accidentally lock themselves in the car, they can die from heat

2) Always keep valuables out of sight on the roads. You can have a dummy purse and phone such that if robbers waylay you in traffic and ask for them, you can hand it over knowing it’s the fake. They won’t be opening the purses to check which is real or fake at that time

3) Always be alert and conscious of your environment when in traffic. Keep car doors locked and windows up. If your air conditioning is not working, you need to be watchful to know when to raise your windows

4) Teach your kids to stay calm and not distract you on the roads as distraction could lead to accidents. Do not allow them to stand instead keep them engaged in activities

Was this beneficial? Share with others

Have your ordered our #ChildSafety story book? Order now by sending an email. It makes a great addition to children gift packs. Gift them something they can learn lifesaving skills from

Last year a 10 year old was able to save his 2 year old brother who was no longer breathing from their pool using the CPR method he had seen when watching a movie featuring The Rock. (Check pictures for the news story)

Every parent, nanny, child minder and adult needs to know how to go about this lifesaving skill because you have no idea the day you’d find yourself in a situation that requires it

CPR is Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation. To simplify this, it is an attempt to restart a heart that has stopped beating. You might feel you’re not 100% skilled but it’s better to do something than to do nothing
When should this be done?
As soon as you notice that the person has stopped breathing
Tip to remember
Always ensure you are safe and that you use a protective equipment
Watch out for Wednesday’s demonstration video
Did you learn something? Share with others

Some days ago, a number of people tagged me on a post by @adenikeoyetunde of a young man who had a seizure. Going through the comment section, a lot of “commenters” agreed that knowing about first aid was an important skill today. Like I always say, the difference between life and death in an emergency is knowledge and timely action. Unfortunately most of us want to help but do not know how exactly and some of us resort to “pouring water”. Pouring water is not the solution to all problems my dear friends.

A seizure is a sudden, uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain. It could last from thirty seconds to two minutes. If more than five minutes, it’s a medical emergency.

Symptoms range from blank stare, twitching limbs, frothing of the mouth, lip smacking etc.

How can you help?
– Remove sharp or dangerous objects from vicinity. Protect patient’s head

– Do not restrain the patient

– Do not put anything in the patient’s mouth
– Allow seizure run its course

– When seizure is over, place patient in recovery position

– Monitor the patient

How to place in recovery position?

-Put the person on a flat surface and kneel beside the person

– Place the arm nearest to you at a right angle

– Move the other arm towards you and place that on their opposite check

– Pull up the knee furthest from you until foot is flat on the floor

– Gently pull the knee towards as you turn the person on their side
– Tilt the head back and raise their chin to ensure airways are open

Share with others if this was helpful.

Recovery position image: Google

I recorded a T.V. interview on how a school can ensure safety on their premises. One of the questions I was asked was the role of parents.

1) Be observant: it is only when you observe that you will notice unsafe acts. For example, how did you get into the school without due process? A stranger can do same. Do you always see stagnant water at a particular spot?  Do you always trip on that particular walkway?

2) Ask questions: asking questions helps provide knowledge and prevents assumption. Could it be they are genuinely unaware of the implications? Could it be they have a system in place you are not aware of? It is only when you get involved and ask that you will know if your child is safe in that school

3) Support existing effective systems: Some schools have a challenge where the parent is a rebel. When schools put systems in place to protect your child, help them do their job by complying with set safety rules. For example, you know the pickup procedure, do not give security personnel or teachers issue when you are the one disobeying

4) Make recommendations: If you see something is not done right or not done at all, make recommendations for improvement. When in doubt, invite me to help them out.

When the T.V. interview is out, I’d share so you can learn other things.

Tag your friends if this was useful to you

What is ASAP?

Over the weekend was World First Aid Day so we decided to share some tips in that direction.
ASAP does not mean as soon as possible in this context. It is a quick tip to staying safe and helping others in a Road Traffic Accident (RTA). I lost my mum in an RTA because people on the scene did not know how to help. I do not like to talk about this part but if it helps others, I have no choice.

When an accident happens, timing and knowledge is the difference between being alive and being a victim. There are times accidents happen that were not supposed to affect more people but because they did not stay away from harm, they became victims

A – Assess the situation
S – Stay away from harm
A – Alert emergency medical services
P – Provide First Aid if you are trained
Thinking through this, do you see how some victims of explosions or accidents could have had a fighting chance at survival. Knowledge applied correctly is Power.

Would you like us to visit your school and train children and teachers on safety? Send a message.

Intentionally grooming a safety conscious generation

Michael moved to a new estate and a gym was right there on his street. He felt this was a good opportunity to keep his new year resolution of moving from 1 pack to 6 packs. By the end of week 1, he was in the hospital for  back strain. Further investigation revealed he never did warm ups or stretches, he just dived in to workout routines he saw other gym users doing.

Exercising at home or the gym is becoming a  part of our culture. This is awesome as it provides an opportunity to improve our health. However, if we are not careful this could also impact our health and safety negatively when precautions are not taken.

Here are a few factors to consider:

• Do not copy other gym users blindly
• Use appropriate gym attire and right shoes
• Do not carry weight that is beyond you. If it drops on you, the consequences could be dire

Few months ago, a mother locked her children in their home with a burning candle and went for a vigil in church. During the night, a fire started. Neighbours had to break in to save the children, all property got burnt. Some months ago, there was a school bus fire. There was report that the children had perceived a smell and communicated to the driver but he didn’t listen. Another child died in school because ill health was mismanaged. There are more cases of children landing in hospitals due to accidental injury. And in the past 6 months, more cases of children being molested by adults have come to light.

This week is #ChildSafetyWeek and the theme is “Safe Children: Together we’ve got this”. The future of safety is prevention strategies. We can no longer continue to be reactive to issues. Therefore, we all have contributory  roles to play to achieve a safer world for our children either as parents, teachers, caregivers, school owners, family members or religious centres. We need to do this together.

What can you do?
As parents, learn the right things and avoid unsafe choices
.
Keep your homes, schools, religious centres accident proof. Reach out to safety professionals to guide you
.
Teach children how to stay safe in different situations because they can act as long as they have the knowledge
.
Get safety education reinforcement as a way to keep new knowledge at the top of minds of children e.g. books, school safety poster packs
.
We all need to play our roles to ensure #ChildSafety because truly, together we’ve got this.

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