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Abstract
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Background Fire and burn injuries pose a serious risk to all especially to young children. Burn injuries often take a long time to heal and are either not entirely reversible or extremely expensive to treat in India. As per World Health Organisation report, around 265,000 deaths are caused by burns every year especially in low economic countries and globally nearly 96,000 children under the age of 20 were estimated to be fattlly injured as a result of fire realted burns in 2004. Fire incidents are on the rise even in Pune. In 2014, it is estimated that around 76,000 children sustained burn injuries in Pune alone and out of these around 2980 suffered third degree burns. The highest number of burn injuries occurred in the age group of 7-10 years. 64% of the burn injuries happened at home.
Methods Safe Kids foundation India (SKFI) undertook extensive research conducted by IMRB international to understand preventable child injuries in Pune. Based on the findings SKFI has developed bilingual educational materials and safety messages. With the help of these, we will conduct training and create awareness among children and adults.
Objective Reduce fire, burn and scald injuries among children below 14 years of age in Pune by creating awareness that aim to change the behaviours.
Results The campaign will reach out to 325,000 students below 14 years of age and 175,000 parents in 3 years through community events and class room sessions. Educational and awareness efforts in schools & communities and rising mindfulness among caregivers will result in protecting children from fire and burn injuries.
Conclusions The statistics are alarming, and there are global concerns as well. Change of behaviour on the part of parents and children will pave the way for a safe environment in Pune. SKFI is exploring opportunities to extend education and outreach efforts in other states in India such as Bangalore and Gurgaon.
Abstract from Safety 2016 World Conference, 18-21 September 2016; Tampere, Finland. Copyright © 2016 The author(s), Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions
Language: en |