Hanadi Saleh Al Yafei, Director of the Child Safety Department (CSD), has emphasised that families and children’s joy of winter needs more attention to ensure the lovely season is safe and will offer fantastic family memories without any accidents or safety inconveniences, which adds more warmth and cohesion to the close relations between parents and children.
This came in winter as a continuation of the comprehensive year-round child safety awareness campaign ‘Their Safety First’ that was launched by the CSD, an affiliate of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), in line with its keenness to raise community awareness and harness the concerted efforts aimed at maintaining child safety.
“Our winter is more beautiful when our children are safe, and we believe that keeping them safe needs attention and a keen eye on situations that could put them at risk as well as full commitment to all safety standards in detail, no matter how simple the situation is. Those include safety in vehicles by ensuring that children do not stick their heads and bodies out of the car’s sunroof or lean out of the windows, leaving kids alone without any adult supervision in public places or beaches or picnics, full commitment to bicycles and scooter safety standards and riding in designated areas and tracks. Other steps of utmost importance are to protect children from any risk of falling from heights, including balconies or windows, and provide key safety measures inside and outside apartments,” said Al Yafei.
Al Yafei underscored that CSD’s communication with parents on children’s safety is not for publicity but a genuine keenness on the physical and emotional well-being of communities, children, and their shared future that should not be affected negatively by accidents, risks, or incidents.
“It is more of keenness on the emotions and psychology of our children who should always feel safe and protected under their parents’ loving care and support. We want them to enjoy their childhood and culminate beautiful memories that foster a sense of belonging and appreciation to society so that they grow up willing to give back to the country that protected them from their early childhood,” she added.
“We live in a country that has been making milestone achievements in all sectors and has placed itself at the forefront of competitiveness indexes at the regional and global levels. This is why we are working tirelessly to turn child safety into a central national index and seek zero child accidents caused by negligence or estimation errors. We are confident that we will successfully achieve this goal thanks to the continuous collaboration and engagement and the exchange of information between our strategic and potential partners,” Al Yafei concluded.
The quote of Hanadi Al Yafei, Director of the CSD, comes as a continuation of the inclusive ‘Their Safety First’ campaign that comprises a collection of sub-campaigns and awareness activities that are implemented throughout the year, under which falls most of the CSD’s efforts to raise awareness among families, children and community members on safety measures that should be followed to protect them from dangers and against risks in all seasons.
The CSD underscored that the campaign highlights that child safety is a continuous and not a seasonal process aimed at bolstering communication with families and all segments of society to ensure a high level of physical, psychological, and emotional safety. At the same time, it seeks to reinforce strategic partnerships with child safety partners, including the Sharjah Social Services Department, Sharjah Police, Sharjah Civil Defense Authority, Sharjah Prevention and Safety Authority, and health promotion department.
