Children practice swimming at Van Duc fishing village, Van Duc commune, Gia Lam district, Hanoi . (Photo: THANH DAT)
Sharing with reporters, Mr. Dang Hoa Nam, Director of the Department of Children (Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) said that saving children's lives must be the top priority... However, the work of preventing and combating accidents and injuries, especially preventing and combating drowning in children, has not received due attention from many localities.
Reporter : Sir, first of all, could you tell us about the current situation of accidents and injuries occurring to children in Vietnam?
Mr. Dang Hoa Nam, Director of the Department of Children : Currently, the most common child injuries are still due to drowning and traffic accidents. In Vietnam, each year there are about 1,800 cases of children dying from drowning accidents, similar to cases of children dying from traffic accidents.
However, with many positive interventions in recent times, it can be said that we have gradually reduced the rate of drowning accidents as well as traffic accidents in children. And this work still needs more efforts. The reason is that the cause of death due to injury accidents in general and especially drowning accidents and traffic accidents in Vietnam is still one of the countries with high rates and the requirement is to reduce it much more strongly.
In Vietnam, every year there are about more than 1,800 cases of children dying from drowning accidents, similar to cases of children dying from traffic accidents...
Recently, we have seen many other types of accidents and injuries to children. Specifically: accidents related to food safety, food poisoning cases in schools, children studying in boarding schools or buying services and food outside the school gate...
This situation also requires strengthening food safety and hygiene management, controlling food supply to primary schools, to student canteens, and especially managing food services for students at school gates and in school areas.
Another emerging issue is the situation of children being victims of fires and explosions. This is an issue that needs special attention. First of all, how to have safe school areas and safe apartments to ensure fire prevention and fighting safety in general, especially related to children.
Reporter : So how do you evaluate the measures and models for preventing child injuries that are being implemented, especially with the recent non-traditional injuries?
Children attend a program to experience fire escape skills at the Hanoi Fire Prevention and Fighting University. (Photo: THUY NGUYEN) |
Director Dang Hoa Nam : With new types of accidents and injuries appearing, especially fire and explosion accidents, the communication and prevention work of the fire prevention, fire fighting and rescue forces has been implemented very well in recent times.
We have introduced knowledge and skills on survival, especially fire prevention and fighting skills, into schools, just as we previously introduced knowledge and skills on traffic accident prevention and drowning prevention into theeducational environment for students.
We believe that this work must combine many measures to build a safe living environment for children. For example, we need to examine more the communication and education of child safety models, and establish a safe living environment. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs has issued a decision on the criteria for safe homes, and we strive to have at least 5 million households achieving safe homes.
The Department of Children will also advise the leaders of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to update more information and supplement standards on safe homes to prevent and combat forms of accidents that are at risk of increasing in the current context.
We still talk a lot about combining the three environments of family - school and society, but the focus of creating a safe environment to prevent accidents and injuries for children is the responsibility of local authorities and communities for types of food and beverage businesses outside the school gate, or providing food for boarding schools, etc. We think that there needs to be updates on standards for safe schools or standards for safe communities.
With the emergence of many types of non-traditional accidents, we need stronger commitments from the community, local authorities, etc. Develop and integrate criteria to build a safe living environment for children, with children as the central subject.
Reporter : So, in your opinion, what immediate solutions do we need to have to bring about a truly safe, friendly and healthy living environment for children?
Director Dang Hoa Nam : Currently, on average, each year we reduce about 3 to 5% of child deaths due to accidents and injuries, equivalent to about 100 cases of children being saved each year.
Compared to 10 or 15 years ago, the number of deaths due to accidents in Vietnam was at times close to 3,000 deaths per year, but now this number has been reduced to approximately 2,000. There were years when this number dropped to more than 1,800 cases.
We have had good intervention models, but the problem now is the need to replicate those positive models. And to replicate, local budgets need to be further strengthened to be able to implement intervention models to prevent drowning.
Mr. Dang Hoa Nam, Director of the Department of Children
However, this rate of decrease is temporarily called a natural decrease. This does not guarantee the requirements and goals of controlling child injuries and by all means, we must reduce it even faster, so that each year we set a target of reducing about 3 to 5%, or better yet, 10% of the number of child deaths due to injuries.
We have had good intervention models, but the problem now is the need to replicate those positive models. And to replicate, local budgets need to be further strengthened to be able to implement intervention models to prevent drowning.
Specifically: Establishing a safe water environment, strengthening family, community, and case supervision measures for students and children; increasing the opening of safe swimming classes to teach safety skills to children and students, etc. All of these require reasonable budget investment.
In reality, the budget problem of localities, especially those that still receive support from the central budget and have not balanced revenue and expenditure, especially the construction and execution of projects to ensure the safety of children in the area, requires balance and priority.
I would like to emphasize that “Saving children’s lives is a priority issue”, and investing in the budget for implementing a child drowning prevention intervention model does not really cost too much. This field only costs a moderate amount of money that we can calculate.
Therefore, we hope that the People's Committees and People's Councils of provinces and cities will quickly issue resolutions to reasonably allocate resources, including human resources and local budgets, to quickly implement intervention models to prevent and combat child drowning.
The evidence is that in areas with intervention, local budget investment, or ongoing projects, it is clear that in the past 3 to 5 years, the number of deaths due to accidents and injuries has decreased by 30 to 50%.
Reporter : Thank you very much!
Specific objectives of the Child Accident and Injury Prevention Program for the 2021-2030 period
Reduce the rate of accidents, injuries and deaths due to accidents and injuries of children:
- Reduce the rate of child accidents and injuries to 550/100,000 children by 2025 and 500/100,000 children by 2030.
- Reduce the rate of child deaths due to accidents and injuries to 16/100,000 children in 2025 and 15/100,000 children in 2030.
- Annually reduce 5-10% of children killed and injured in road traffic accidents.
- Reduce the number of children dying from drowning by 10% by 2025 and 20% by 2030.
- 7,000,000 houses of households with children meet the Safe Home criteria by 2025 and 8,000,000 by 2030; 12,000 schools meet the Safe School criteria by 2025 and 15,000 by 2030; 400 communes, wards and towns meet the Safe Community criteria for preventing and combating child accidents and injuries by 2025 and 500 by 2030.
REPORTER GROUP
Source: https://nhandan.vn/quan-tam-hon-toi-cong-tac-phong-chong-tai-nan-thuong-tich-tre-em-post847724.html
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