Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen talks to a visitor inside a simulator of a giant kitchen during a Kulluna safety roadshow.
Doha: Kulluna, the national health and safety campaign, is preparing to raise more awareness about child safety with an aim to reduce the number of avoidable child injuries treated at hospitals and emergency departments.
Since its launch in 2012, Kulluna is spreading awareness at road shows, events and at schools to educate the public, students, teachers and parents on preventing injuries. Although the campaign has reached around 80 percent of schools in the country and thousands of people, the need to spread the message still remains important, says Dr Khalid Abdulnoor Saifeldeen, Director of Hamad International Training Centre and Chairman of the Kulluna safety campaign.
The injuries among children tend to fall into six main categories: Falls, burns, drowning, being hit by cars in the driveway, choking and poisoning.
“We have been committed and it has been four years now, what Kulluna has done is sent out a clear message that child safety is important. We know we are making an impact , we have been certainly sending the message out and making awareness about dangers at home. We like to be more active and do more,” Dr Saifeldeen told The Peninsula.
“One of the projects we have is home safety, we go to schools and many places spreading awareness. We have created awareness about different dangers at homes. Some people ask us, why home? I could tell them that home is still statistically the most dangerous place for children. Most injuries happens at home including drowning, burning, falling, choking and poisoning,” he added.
More than 40,000 children aged up to 14 suffer injuries at home every year in Qatar and 85 percent of accidents occur at home, according to statistics by Kulluna. Almost 80 percent of injuries at home are fall-related.
Many accidents occur due to lack of adult supervision.
A caravan with a simulated kitchen with equipment visits schools and other places to educate people on preventing injuries at home.
“We have to evaluate and see if we are doing it the right way or if we should change the approach of the cmapiagn. But certainly we are going to pay more attention to child safety, this is going to our main priority,” said Dr Saifeldeen. Kulluna, initially launched as a five year initiative also has awareness projects including ‘healthy heart,’ and ‘Beat the heat.’
