By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
IT MIGHT make perfect common sense to most but simple ways of preventing injury to children in the home do not always translate.
To cover the gap, Kidsafe Victoria has produced a series of multilingual child injury prevention fact sheets.
The fact sheets are available in 11 languages including English, Serbian, Arabic, Somali, Chinese, Turkish, Croatian, Vietnamese, Macedonian, Chin-haka and Karen.
Geelong Karenni leader Augustino Moedu and other members of his community attended a lunch of the new resources at Norlane Child and Family Centre.
“The fact sheets will help us learn to recognise and understand risks to our children in our homes,” Mr Moedu said.
“Having this information translated into Karen is so valuable for our families and makes us feel part of the community.”
The fact sheets will also become part of City of Greater Geelong’s child injury prevention program.
Covering home safety tips, the fact sheets cover different ages and stages from birth to five years and cover preventable causes of injury in the home, at play and on the street.
Mayor Darryn Lyons said the initiative increased community accessibility to important safety information.
“It is shocking to me that five children die and another 1115 are injured every week in Australia due to unintentional injury,” Cr Lyons said.
“We must do everything we can to reduce these accidents.”
Kidsafe Victoria project manager Jason Chambers said the material provided neutral, evidence-based child information to prevent injuries in the home, where they most commonly occurred.
The ages and stages fact sheets are available for free download on the Geelong Australia website.
