ANNUAL REPORT
JUNE 2016 - MAY 2017
Board of Trustees
Mr. Mahendra Mehta, Founder Trustee Ms. Asha Mehta, Trustee
Mr. Sanjiv Mehta, Director & Trustee Ms. Rupa Kothari, Executive Director &
Managing Trustee Mr. Ameet Parikh, Trustee
From the
Director’s Desk
Safe Kids Foundation (SKF) is a non-profit organization and works in close collaboration with Safe Kids Worldwide to improve the lives of children in India. SKF works with non-profit organizations, governments and schools to promote awareness and teach that accidental deaths and injuries are preventable under its two flagship programs - ‘Safe Kids Walk This Way’ and ‘Safe Kids at Home’.
Safe Kids Foundation has done extensive and commendable work in the field of road safety.
‘Safe Kids Walk This Way’ pedestrian safety program was launched in Mumbai in 2007 with the support from FedEx to address pedestrian related injuries to children. The program has expanded to two additional cities, Delhi in 2009 and Ahmedabad in 2010. From 2007 through 2016, more than 3000 schools and nearly 4.5 million children have been reached through educative activities, playing a critical role in improving road safety for children in these cities. The program interventions are
backed by a thorough research and analysis of the survey on the modes of transport used by children, mapping the community zones and the Road Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice survey.
Safe Kids Foundation (SKF), with the support from Honeywell India, launched ‘Safe Kids at Home’, a home safety program to help prevent and reduce burns and scalds among children under 14 years old in Pune. This program is backed by an extensive IMRB research on the occurrence and severity of injuries, children in this age group suffer at home. The program deploys cutting-edge, experiential, and fun educational tools targeted at different age groups, to reach 425,000 children and 250,000 parents by 2018. Since its inception, the program has reached out to 190,000 children from 658 schools and 154,000 parents from 223 communities. The program does not stop at safety training for children alone, but children become a pivot for bringing citizens and civic agencies together to drive a strong safety culture in the city in line with the Indian government’s 100 Smart Cities vision.
I am pleased to share the Annual Report with you, where we highlight some of the notable milestones we have achieved in the last year with the statistics, the impact of the many awareness sessions we have conducted in many schools and communities to facilitate the importance of road and home safety with our children and loved ones and I look forward to your continued support in the oncoming year.
Thanking You Rupa Kothari
‘Safe Kids
Walk This Way’
Program
Program Overview
The ‘Safe Kids Walk This Way’ is a multifaceted pedestrian safety program based on the four pillars of awareness, education, research and advocacy developed by Safe Kids Foundation and sponsored by FedEx. The program was launched in 2007 in Mumbai to teach safe behaviours to child pedestrians, adults and motorists and extended to Delhi in 2009 and Ahmedabad in 2010.
The objective of the program is to reduce unintentional injuries to children caused due to road traffic collisions, by creating awareness on road and pedestrian safety, data analysis and implementing evidence based interventions to bring about changes in their attitude, behaviour and environment.
The program targets to reach out to 564,000 children by 2020 in three cities, Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad through interactive classroom educational sessions and
undertaking 5 schools and 2 communities under the banner of action projects in Mumbai to bring about behavioural and environmental changes to create safer walkable places for child pedestrians.
Major Achievements
»»Safe Kids Foundation received a commendatory note from the Deputy Commissioner of Police as a token of appreciation for exemplary contribution to road safety.
»»Successful program partnership with Underwriter Laboratories, Youth Service America, Road Safety Academy, Pune Traffic Police and Mumbai Traffic Police.
»»An innovative initiative taken to create awareness through cartoons sketches created by children and compiled into a cartoon book ‘Let’s Sketch for Road Safety’. The book was appreciated by Shri. Vallabhbhai Kakadiya, Minister of State Transport, Gujarat, Shri. Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood actor, Mumbai and Ahmedabad Traffic Police.
»»An abstract on ‘Let’s Sketch for Road Safety’ submitted by Safe Kids Foundation is selected for a poster presentation at the Safe Kids Worldwide Child Injury Prevention Convention (Prevcon) on July 26 to 29, 2017.
»»The pictures clicked by children who were a part of the photo-voice exercise on road safety developed by the Safe Kids Foundation are a part of the 51st issue of Robinage, an exclusive newspaper for children along with the road safety tips given by former Director General of Police, Maharashtra, Dr. Pasricha.
»»The Safe Kids Road Safety program representatives presented 2 posters on
the best practices carried out in India at the 12th World Injury Prevention Conference namely, ‘Creating a Model- Model School Zone Project’ and ‘Children
& Road Safety - A Multipronged approach’.
Program Impact and Outreach
The Safe Kids Road Safety program has covered a total of 3,064 schools, 2,122 teachers, and 1,915,218 children through educational sessions and 2,422,030 children through awareness sessions across Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad. The program has reached out to 210 parents through trainings, 1,311 parents through participative activity sessions across the cities and covered 9,234 youngsters from 8 colleges through various activity based learning programs. Safe Kids Foundation collaborated with the teachers of Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha and reviewed the text books from Grade 1st to 8th to assess the content on road safety and integrated age and grade specific information maintaining the authenticity, flow and the content of the curriculum intact. The findings of the textbook reviews with recommendations will be submitted to the Maharashtra State Textbook Bureau subsequently.
World Day of Remembrance
With an aim to create awareness on provision of medical help to accident victims, a rally was
organized where 150 children from Rosemary English High School, Mumbai participated on the 20th November 2017. This initiative was in memory of 2 girls who had lost their lives in a bus accident enroute to school. Ms. Qamar Jahan Siddiqui, the local corporator and chief guest emphasized on the infrastructural changes planned for her locality to make the roads safer for pedestrians. Children participating in the rally displayed placards having the messages on road safety and chanted slogans.
National Road Safety Week
The 28th Road Safety Week 2017 was observed nationwide from the 9th to 15th January 2017.
In the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the Road Safety Week extended to a fortnight of various road safety awareness activities by Safe Kids Foundation in Mumbai and Ahmedabad in collaboration with the City Traffic Police.
Road Safety
awareness activities in Mumbai
»»An innovative project ‘Lets Sketch for Road Safety’
was undertaken by the Foundation to sensitize children to the cause of road safety where children were engaged in communicating road safety messages through cartoons. Eminent cartoonist Mr. Manish Rangnekar was appointed to take the children through various stages of cartooning where 18 children enthusiastically participated in the workshop. The girls very diligently practiced the lessons, visualized the situations that needed attention highlighting the most dangerous situations on the road. The sketches were compiled into a cartoon book, which was unveiled in Mumbai and Ahmedabad during the Road Safety Week.
»»Safe Kids Foundation unveiled six new posters on road safety.
»»A road safety essay competition was organized in association with Mumbai Traffic Police where 154 children from 18 road safety patrol schools in Mumbai wrote essays on Road Safety Week’s theme ‘Your safety secures your family- Be cautious on the road’
with creative pictures and slogans. The winners were felicitated by the Joint Commissioner of the Police.
»»4 colleges participated in a poster making competition with a total of 81 poster entries. These posters were judged by the Joint Commissioner of Police, FedEx representatives and the Road Safety Advisory Committee where the prize winners were felicitated.
»»18 street plays on safe walking, safe crossing and pedestrian safety were conducted at 15 prominent locations in Mumbai throughout the week where 500 children and 2700 youth and adults participated.
»»Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha organized road safety awareness program in three schools of Mumbai with fun activities covering around 500 children. A road safety awareness program was organized by Safe Kids Foundation in collaboration with the New Mumbai Traffic Police covering 800 children from 25 schools of Raigad district.
Road Safety Week awareness activities in Ahmedabad
In association with the Road Safety Academy, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, City Traffic Police and 36 teachers associated with ‘Walk This Way’ program, a drawing competition was organised for 187 children from 19 schools. A cartoon book on road safety was unveiled by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Ahmedabad. Dignitaries felicitated winners of all competitions.
Global Road Safety Week
On the occasion of 4th Global Road Safety Week, Safe Kids Foundation and program
sponsor FedEx organized a Safe Kids ‘Cycle Carnival’ in Pune in collaboration with Traffic Police (Urban & Rural) and Run Buddies Club based on the theme of the UN Global Road Safety Week 2017, i.e. to create awareness on the dangers of over speeding.
Posters on over speeding hazards were displayed to increase awareness. Professional cyclists and road safety experts were invited to highlight the importance of speed control and its impact on the safety of children. The cyclists were led by professionals from the field of road safety and environment promoting mandatory use of helmet and safety gear. A bicycle rally along with various fun activities was organized for children and adults, where 521 people including 56 children, 254 adults, 112 youths, 74 FedEx volunteers from Pune and 25 team members of Safe Kids Foundation participated.
Research
According to Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India (ADSI) 2015 Report, the number of road accidents in India have increased by 3.1%
as compared to 2014. Children are the most vulnerable groups walking to school alone and are more susceptible to road accidents and injuries, even death due to lack of adult supervision.
Safe Kids Foundation initiated “Action Projects”
in 5 schools and 5 communities in Mumbai where different school zones and the modes of transport used by children were assessed.
The studies were initiated in the month of July 2016 and the data was sorted, grouped and analysed. The awareness programs and activities were conducted to spread and reinforce the messages on road safety through creative mediums and group activities.
All the findings of the study have been shared with the respective schools with recommendations for changes. There are core committees formed in each school for planning suitable combat interventions. Some of the schools have already started initiating the changes in line with their requirements.
Modes of Transport Survey
The summary of the study on the modes of transport used by the children to commute from home to school back and forth is as follows:
»»Out of the 469 children of Grade 5 to 8 who participated in the study, 403 children walk to school every day. Out of these, 333 children walk to school alone without an adult supervision.
»»The other 66 children come to school either on bicycle, or by a private school bus/van, or using public transport services. The common problem faced is the heavy traffic on road and bad road conditions like uneven roads, potholes and under construction areas to name a few. The children travelling by public transport complained of overcrowding.
The frequency of the buses is low during weekends and therefore traveling to school on a Saturday was a challenge.
»»134 children who walked to school complained of unavailability of safe walking spaces, 145 reported unavailability of zebra crossings and traffic signals near the school area and 156 reported of heavy traffic.
Mapping of 5 Community Zones
The community which fell in the vicinity of each of the schools under study were also mapped for road safety related issues. The details of the community zones mapping are as below:
»»The school zone assessment and the community mapping illustrates that the school children don’t have safe walking spaces, the paths are uneven and vehicles are driven on the footpaths, even parked on either side of the road. There are street vendors who occupy the walking spaces especially during the afternoon hours. The garbage and roadside slum dwellers make it even more difficult for child pedestrians.
»»The children are unable to cross the roads due to speeding vehicles, absence of traffic signals, zebra crossings, road signs and speed breakers.
»»It has also been noted that the walking space outside of a school was occupied
by a large community garbage bin. In some schools, the buses are parked at the main gate in addition to an auto rickshaw stand, in spite of having enough parking space inside the school premises.
»»In some localities, having 2 or 3 schools in close proximity of each other with the same timings created chaos for the drivers and pedestrians.
»»Under construction buildings and roads caused further obstruction to the drivers and pedestrians.
Road Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice Survey
Safe Kids Foundation similarly conducted a Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice survey with 274 parents in these 5 action project schools.
The findings of the survey are as below:
»»87 (31%) parents were aware of the two types of signals as vehicular and pedestrian.
»»201 (73%) parents were aware that one
should always walk on the extreme edge of the road not having a footpath facing the oncoming traffic. However, the observation outside schools reveals that around 59% parents were jay walking.
»»Only 33 (12%) parents could tell the correct sequence of a vehicular signal.
Only 38 (14%) parents were aware what a ‘Flashing Red Man’ sign of the pedestrian signal indicates.
»»180 (66%) perceived zebra crossings as the safest means of crossing the road, 165 (60%) professed the pedestrian subway, 148 (54%) the skywalk and 135 (49%) vouched for the foot over bridge.
But nonetheless, more than half of the majority confessed that they make use of zebra crossing, skywalk, subway and foot over bridge only when it is available and easily accessible to cross the road.
»»240 (88%) parents reported drunk driving as the major cause of accidents in a city like Mumbai followed by 224 (82%) who reported rash driving and over speeding and 201 (73.4%) who said distraction of the drivers was another cause.
»»Out of 274 parents, 125 (46%) said that they always wear a helmet while riding.
However the observation revealed that only 8% of the total parents riding two wheelers were using a helmet.
»»119 (44%) parents felt that 11-15 years is the correct age group when children can go out on the road without adult supervision.
Name of School
Road (Left side
of the school
gate)
Road (Right side of the school
gate) Subhash Nagar
Municipal School 2km 3km
Tulshetpada Municipal
School 3km 1 km
Eksar Talepakhadi
Municipal School 1km 2.5km Chunabhatti
Municipal School 1.5km 3km Dahisar Vidyamandir 2km 2km Total Distance 9.5km 11.5km Total distance of road
covered in community around school
9.5km+11.5km = 21km
FedEx Employee Engagement
Safe Kids Foundation engaged FedEx employees through various volunteering opportunities throughout the year. Over 196 FedEx employees volunteered for the road safety awareness and activity based programs clocking 740 hours of direct volunteering support.
A team of 14 FedEx volunteers from Mumbai performed street plays at 2 locations in Mumbai during the Road Safety Week which had a collective footfall of about 50 children and 300 youth and adults. 18 FedEx volunteers volunteered for the various activities during the Road Safety Week awareness programs in Ahmedabad.
Out of 2615 vehicles
observed passing in the
school zone
‘Safe Kids at Home’ Program
Program Overview
The ‘Safe Kids at Home’, an interactive school based educational program, was launched by Safe Kids Foundation with the support from Honeywell in Pune in 2015. The program which focuses on preventing fire and burn injuries among children below 14 years of age through training and awareness campaigns in the schools and communities has reached out to 190,000 students from 658 schools and 154,000 parents from 223 communities. The program aspires to bring together citizens and civic bodies who can lead the way in making Pune a model ‘Safe Kids at Home’ city in India. After a successful implementation in Pune Municipal Corporation, the program will now be scaled up to Pimpri-Chinchwad area and aim to reach out to a total of 425,000 students and 250,000 parents by the end of March 2018.
Major Achievements
»»The program received highest endorsement from Mr. D.K. Shami, Fire Adviser, Directorate General Fire Service, Civil Defense & Home Guards (Fire Cell), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India.
»»‘Safe Kids at Home’ program curriculum is now part of the national fire and evacuation drills and each state and union teritories have been provided with an Educators Guide and Toolkit.
»»‘Safe Kids at Home’ program was presented at the 12th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, themed
‘From research to implementation’, in Finland in September 2016.
»»The program has received global recognition and has been replicated in Malaysia.
»»Pioneered 100 model fire safe schools and 20 model fire safe communities in Pune.
»»Pioneered the formation of 106 ‘Agni Suraksha Mitras’ (Fire Safety Volunteers), in Pune.
»»A poster making competition, themed
‘Safe Home - Safe Kids,’ was organised at renowned Fine Arts colleges of Pune to raise awareness on fire and burn prevention through art and youth engagement and received over 100 entries.
»»Conducted 32 fire drills in schools, communities and hospitals across Pune.
»»Co-hosted a ‘Kids Carnival’ during FSAI Life Marathon with the theme ‘Run for Fire Safety’ and were the supporting organization in planning and executing the Marathon along with FSAI and Fire Department (PMC).
Program Outreach
Safe Kids Foundation has reached out to over 190,000 students from 658 schools and 154,000 parents from 223 communities as against the target of 175,000 students and 75,000 parents.
Training of Trainers Program
At the beginning of the new academic year, Safe Kids Foundation trained 35 master trainers with the focus on how to impart fire safety teachings to children and parents. An end-to-end overview of the program, implementation model, tools, methodology, field experiences, reflections from the pilot implementation and zone-wise mapping were emphasized upon.
Model Fire Safe Schools and Communities
Safe Kids Foundation endeavours to transform Pune into a model ‘Safe Kids at Home’ city with an active engagement from all key stakeholders and by forming model fire safe schools and communities. In the last one year 100 model fire safe schools and 20 model fire safe communities have been formed. ‘Safe Kids Fire Safety Committees’
are formed in schools comprising of 1,416 students and 671 teachers who play an active role in preparing a fire escape plan to identify alternate (two ways) exit routes to reach the safe meeting place in a timely and orderly manner. The designated safe meeting places have been identified and prominently marked by installing ‘Safe Meeting Place’ boards.
Awareness campaigns in Model Schools
‘Surakshabandhan’ rakhi making competition
Various awareness campaigns like
‘Surakshabandhan’ rakhi making competition,
‘My Safe Ganesha’ poster and poetry competition, ‘My Safe Home’ model making competition, essay writing, quiz and sports day have been organized round the year in model schools to engage children with the core idea of the program and to reinforce home safety messages. Over 4,800 students participated in these competitions and displayed their creativity on critical home safety areas.
‘My Safe Home’ inter-school model making competition
‘I am a Safe Kid’ essay writing competition
Fire Safety quiz competition
Safe Kids Sports Day
Awareness Campaigns in Model Communities
A melange of awareness campaigns around Ganesh festival and Independence Day were organized with an aim of sensitizing every resident of the communities on fire safety.
These include citywide awareness campaigns during Ganesh festival, Rangoli competition in model fire safe communities on the theme
‘Cooking Safety - Freedom from fire and burn injuries’, and ‘My Safe Home’ competition in slum communities.
Citywide awareness campaign during the Ganesh Festival
Rangoli competition in slums during Independence Day
Fire Safety sessions for Health Department, PMC
‘Safe Kids at Home’ program curriculum was extended to over 400 officials from the Health Department, PMC, and spread over two training sessions led by prominent medical practitioners along with Safe Kids Foundation’s master trainers. This team is instrumental in educating ground level health workers on appropriate waste disposal and thus helping to reduce fire incidences due to garbage burning which is one of the leading causes of fire incidences in Pune.
Large scale citywide
Awareness Campaigns
Besides widespread efforts through children sessions and community sessions/corner meetings, model school/community activities, there have been various large-scale initiatives conducted by the Safe Kids Foundation. Some of the notable ones include National Fire Service Week 2016 (April 14-20), citywide awareness campaign prior to Diwali, Safe Kids Week (November 14-20), Fire Safety awareness during Ganesh Festival, fire drills conducted in schools and communities during National Fire and Evacuation Drill Day and week long awareness campaigns during National Fire Service Week 2017 where 1,250,000 parents and 54,000 children were sensitized.
Safe Diwali, Happy Diwali campaign
As per the research conducted by Safe Kids Foundation on ‘How safe is your Home’, bursting of fire crackers was the third leading cause of injuries among children in Pune due
to inadequate knowledge on safety measures, absence of parental supervision and carelessness with firecrackers. With an aim of raising awareness on firecracker safety, a citywide awareness campaign prior to Diwali, from October 20-28, 2016 was organised in collaboration with PMC and the Fire Department, themed as ‘Safe Diwali Happy Diwali’ reaching out to 500,000 children, parents, caregivers, youth and senior citizens from all four zones of PMC. A few initiatives under the campaign are as follows:
»»A press conference to sensitize the general public through print and electronic media.
»»Safe Kids Foundation and Honeywell co-branded vehicle travelled across the city covering 21 communities and public places on October 25 and 26 disseminating information on safe Diwali with the help of loud speakers, street plays and games.
»»Placards, hoardings and gantries with various firecracker safety tips were deployed across the city.
»»Awareness campaigns at firecracker markets and stalls were organized and the customers were sensitized on the
5 rules of firecracker safety by distributing the handouts for a quick reference.
»»Mega mall events were organized on October 22-23 at Phoenix Mall and sensitized large number of people through various innovative games, photo booths, street plays, flash mobs, quizzes on fire safety and distributing IEC material on fire cracker safety.
»»Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM broadcasted an interview with Dr. Cinthia Pinto, Program Director, Safe Kids Foundation on October 24 where the ‘Safe Kids at Home’ program, the key features of the citywide awareness campaign and the rules of firecracker safety were stressed upon.
Safe Kids Day and Safe Kids Week
Safe Kids Foundation marked the first anniversary of the ‘Safe Kids at Home’ program by launching the Safe Kids Week, with the theme ‘Safe Kids - Safe City’, from November 14 -20 to bring child injury prevention to cynosure on Children’s Day in India. The campaign reached out to over 8,400 kids and teachers from PMC schools, slums, orphanages and children of construction workers with the help of Honeywell India leadership, Fire Department and Public Health Department.
A Bal Mela was organised in collaboration with HOPE (Human Organization for Pioneering Education), Maher, De Nobili College and SVD Seminary to sensitize over 650 underprivileged children on fire safety to baton awareness on fire and burn prevention. The participants included orphans, children of construction workers, and volunteers.
National Fire & Evacuation Drill Day 2017
January 21 has been mandated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI, as a day dedicated for conducting ‘National Fire and Evacuation Drills in the schools’. Speaking on the occasion Mr.
Ranpise, CFO, PMC, said, “As per the central government norms, we conducted fire drills on January 21 in a large number of schools.
Disaster preparedness is mandatory for schools and mock drills equip people to deal with fire incidents in the best possible way.
The fire safety training materials prepared by Safe Kids Foundation help kids understand safety issues more easily”.
25 fire and evacuation drills were conducted in 25 municipal, private and international schools and slums, reaching out to over 15,700 students, teachers and parents. The campaign was launched with a press conference and releasing of handout on
‘Safety in a Fire Emergency’. These handouts were distributed to over 15,000 students, parents and teachers.
‘Home Fire Drill Day’ was launched in the slums of Pune for the first time ever in India with a theme ‘Safe Home, Safe Community’, encouraging the residents to follow the fire safety messages and work towards making their community a ‘fire safe community’.
National Fire Service Week 2017
The theme of the week, ‘Firemen – Your partner for saving life and property’, was a befitting tribute to honour the selfless services rendered by our firemen. A series of weeklong citywide awareness campaigns in collaboration with PMC and PCMC fire departments were organised and reached out to approximately 752,000 children, parents, caregivers and adults. The week began with a press conference which was attended by over 30 media representatives.
A handout on ‘4 simple steps to use a fire extinguisher’ to educate parents on how to use and maintain a fire extinguisher was released on the occasion.
»»Cycle rally was organized in PCMC where in 80 cyclists from the PCMC fire brigade, prominent cycling clubs and Safe Kids Foundation staff cycled over 32 km of PCMC area.
»»Bullet Rally organized in PMC witnessed participation from over 150 bikers and pillions from the Fire Department, citizens and Honeywell employees to honour our firemen, riding over 30 km in the city of Pune.
»»The vehicle rally with Safe Kids Foundation branded vehicle was organized in PCMC along with 15 fire brigades, 50 fire officers covering 28 km distance across PCMC public areas. Citywide awareness campaigns through vehicle rallies sensitized over 386,000 people.
»»Safe Kids Foundation branded vehicle, designed on the theme ‘Firemen – Your partner for saving life and property’
reached out to over 62,000 children, parents, adults and caregivers in PMC and PCMC public areas, communities and housing societies.
»»School rally was organized in collaboration with Vikhe Patil school where over 200
students and teachers; Fire Department officials and ‘Safe Kids at Home’ team marched through Senapati Bapat road, Pune, pledging their support for fire safety. The students shouted slogans on fire safety and urged the citizens to follow safe behaviour.
»»A weeklong exhibition booth on ‘Safe Kids at Home’ program resources was set up along with Fire Department at Sahu Garden reaching over 26,000 parents and children.
»»A Kids Carnival was organized at Vadgaonsheri Park which was visited by more than 9,500 parents and children from housing societies and slums.
»»Fire and evacuation drills were organized both in PMC and PCMC housing societies sensitizing over 1,300 students and parents.
»»The National Fire Service Week concluded with a parade by fire officials at Central Fire Brigade, PMC and Ms.
Mukta Tilak, Mayor, PMC, honouring the best firemen and the CFOs from PMC and PCMC Fire Department on behalf of Safe Kids Foundation for their consistent encouragement and support.
»»The #FiremanMySafetyHero cut-outs were installed at 9 colleges to engage with youth wherein they were encouraged to send their gratitude to firemen for saving our life and property by clicking a photo with the cut-out and posting it on social media with a thank you message.
‘Safe Kids at Home’ Team 2016-2017
Honeywell Employee
Engagement
Honeywell employees have been engaged through monthly volunteering opportunities where more than 150 employees have dedicated over 700 hours of direct volunteering support. The volunteers participated in model fire safe school and community activities and sensitized parents during citywide awareness campaigns.
A series of activities were organized throughout the year like wall painting, fire drills, sports day, Bal mela in schools and communities and a bullet rally across the city where the Honeywell employees participated and contributed to the program. Under this, a wall painting activity was organized in the burns ward of Sassoon Hospital, Pune, to sensitize families of patients, hospital staff and children on fire safety. Dr. Minakshi Bhosale, Senior Paediatric Surgeon, Sassoon;
Ms. Shenaz Pannu, Honeywell along with 5 other Honeywell employees; doctors; hospital staff; children from an orphanage; Ms. Emily Samuel, Safe Kids Worldwide and Safe Kids Foundation team painted fire safety messages from ‘Safe Kids at Home’ program.
Research
‘Safe Kids at Home’ Mid-Term Impact Evaluation
Mid-term evaluation of the program was carried out by Kantar IMRB, an external monitoring and evaluation agency to gauge the program effectiveness and sustainability by assessing knowledge retention; quantitative and qualitative impact of the sessions in schools and communities; behavioural changes among beneficiaries and the quality of the IEC materials.
The research surveyed over 900 respondents across students, teachers, parents, CFO, PMC and Head Paediatrics of Sassoon hospital through structured face to face interviews and mystery qualitative sessions.
99% students liked the program and classroom sessions and found the training materials and methodology unique and useful. 82% of them said that they now use running tap water for 10 minutes to treat minor burns. Nearly 7 out of 10 students reported a reduction in playing with matchsticks and lighters.
86% students now remember emergency contact numbers of Fire Brigade (101) and Ambulance (108).
The training was strongly impactful among parents as well as nearly 8 out of 10 parents
found it more useful for them and their families. 67% mothers now keep their children away from a bucket of water which has a heating rod immersed in it. 44% parents reported that they now tuck in all the loose ends of their clothes while cooking and 34%
parents now ensure not to keep the gas on while watching television.
Besides such a strong impact of the program on students and parents, it was also found that the number of incidents of fire during Diwali were about 7 or 8 in the last year (2016), whereas, it was closer to 13 to 15 in the previous year, suggesting more than 40% drop in incidents handled by the Fire Department.
Survey on Ground Level Cooking
Based on the IMRB research, ‘How Safe is your Home?’ 57% of fire and burn injuries were among children living in slums due to undefined kitchen spaces and easy access to cooking appliances or pots with boiling liquids.
Safe Kids Foundation carried out a survey in 2,209 households from 4 slums and
found that 26% of the households cook at the ground level, 25% don’t have a kitchen platform and in 12% of households, children under 5 years of age suffered burn injuries in the past one year.
Prevcon
The abstract submitted on the theme ‘Ground Level Cooking is the major cause of fire and burn injuries among children in low socio- economic countries’ was selected for the oral presentation at the upcoming Prevcon organised by the Safe Kids Worldwide. Dr Cinthia Pinto, Program Director has also been invited to present Safe Kids at Home program as a ‘Model for Building Partnerships’ at the Global Network Meet and ‘Fire Safety - Making global impact’ during the Prevcon in July 2017 in Baltimore.
Program Resources
The promotional and educational material go through regular updation. In addition, the Educators’ Guide and Student Booklet were translated to Hindi and fire safety flipcharts were introduced in English and Marathi.
Various handouts on fire safety were developed and designed.
Media &
PR Impact
Some Key facts with regard to Media and PR coverage are:
»»Citywide awareness campaign on Firecracker Safety 2016: 28 print, 2 electronic and 4 online media
»»National Fire and Evacuation Drill Day:
11 print media and 1 electronic media
»»Kids Carnival during ‘Run for Fire Safety’
Marathon: 2 print and 1 online media
»»National Fire Service Week 2017:
27 print media and 11 online media
»»188,236 impressions on Facebook reaching over 135,500 users.
»»An average 15% increase in
engagement per post on Facebook during the National Fire Service Week
»»Twitter outreach recorded 330 tweets, 810 retweets and over 129,279
impressions
»»Instagram witnessed over 161 new post likes with 79% increase in engagement.
आग और जलने का प्रतिबंध
तिद्ार्थियों की पुत्िका| कक्ा ३-८
Media Coverage
Safe Kids Walk This Way
»»Youth Service America (YSA) and their Grantees, Underwriter Laboratories(UL)
»»Brihanmumbai Mahapalika Shikshak Sabha (BMSS)
»»Bombay Municipal Corporation
»»Mumbai Traffic Police
»»Birhanmumbai Mahanagarpalika Shikshak Sabha (BMSS)
»»Pune Traffic Police (Urban)
»»Delhi Traffic Police
»»Ahmedabad Traffic Police
»»Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
»»Road Safety Academy (RSA)
»»Junior Colleges, National Service Scheme (NSS) Units (college Youth)
»»The East Bombay Bharat Scouts & Guides District Association
»»Saanvi Foundation, Mumbai
»»Janajagruti Vidhyarthi Sangh, Mumbai
»»Helekar’s Defensive Driving Mission (HDDM)
»»Western India Automobile Association (WIAA)
»»Kolumbus Healthcare Foundation, Pune
»»Yes Foundation, Mumbai
»»Vidyalankar School of Information Technology, Wadala
»»M. L Dahanukar College of Commerce, Vile Parle
»»All India Federation of Teachers Organization (AIFTO)
Safe Kids at Home
»»Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
»Ms. Mukta Tilak, Mayor
»Mr. Kunal Kumar, Commissioner
»»Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC)
»Mr. Nitin Pratap Kalaje, Mayor
»Mr. Shravan Hardikar, Commissioner
»Mr. Dilip Gawade, Joint Commissioner
»Mr. Chandrakant Khose, Assistant Commissioner
»»Fire Department (PMC & PCMC)
»Mr. Prashant Ranpise, CFO
»Mr. Kiran Gawade, CFO
»»Hospital and Burn Units
»Dr. Minakshi Bhosale, Senior Pediatric Surgeon, Sassoon Hospital
»Dr. Nikhil Panse, Plastic Surgeon, Sassoon Hospital
»»Schools and communities
»»NGOs
»New Vision
»CHF India
»HOPE (Human Organization for Pioneering Education)
»Maher
»»Colleges
»D. Y Patil College of Arts
»Abhinav Kala Mahavidyalaya
Partnerships & GR Impact
Safe Kids Foundation, a pioneer in fire safety education in India, is bridging the knowledge gap on fire and burn prevention through its flagship program ‘Safe Kids at Home’. Safe Kids Foundation’s tireless and consistent efforts in keeping kids safe is very commendable. I wish every kid in Pune becomes a Safe Kid, free from injuries so they can grow up in a safe environment and have an injury free childhood”
– Ms. Mukta Tilak, Mayor, PMC By launching one of its kind, evidence based home safety program in Pune, Safe Kids Foundation has pioneered the formalization of a focused program on fire safety in the country, thus adding their contribution to the formation of smart cities that are also safe cities, especially for children”
– Mr. Kunal Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, PMC Safe Kids Foundation has been doing a commendable work of promoting road safety awareness over the last decade. They work closely with Mumbai Traffic Police by organizing many school programs and multiple ground activities with the help of parents and teachers.
As children are the best change agents, they can make a difference. I wish Safe Kids Foundation all the best for their future endeavors.”
- Mr. Milind Bharambe, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Mumbai Injury risks are different around the world. Children, whether rich or poor, living in an industrialized nation or living in rural poverty, have the right to grow up healthy and safe. I congratulate you for your awareness activities to make the place safer for children.”
– Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood Actor
Testimonials
Safe Kids Foundation is grateful to FedEx and Honeywell for sponsoring 'Safe Kids Walk This Way' and 'Safe Kids at Home' program respectively and for their relentless support towards the noble cause of securing our children and ensuring their safety. We extend our gratitude to Safe Kids Worldwide, Traffic Police (Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Pune), Municipal Corporation (Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad) and the Fire Department (Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad) for their support and encouragement.
