Health and Safety
Schoolchildren Training Program "Health and Safety", is an integrated program conducted by the Egyptian Red Crescent aiming at creating a culture of hygiene & health promotion as well as risk reduction among school communities, under the theme Making Our School Community Safe, Prepared and Healthy.
The program consists of five components which are: Disaster Preparedness, First Aid, Road Safety, Hygiene and Healthy Lifestyle, as well as Climate Change.
Focusing on the age group 9-12 years, ERC is expanding the program in 100 primary schools over 3 years in cooperation with the private sector.
Starting from the beginning of the academic year 2010-2011 to date, ERC conducted 256 training sessions for 3200 children who were trained according to the curriculum designed by ERC experts and consultants. More than 40 ERC youth volunteers who were prepared through TOT courses are actively participating in the program activities.
Practical training was an essential part of these sessions. Children were trained on first aid skills, drop-cover-hold on Maneuver for earthquakes, and class evacuation in case of fires. Simulation exercises were conducted in some schools in which the children responded to an assigned alarm, evacuated their class, and met at an assembly point in the playground.
The participants were actively participating in the discussions during the sessions and were encouraged to share their previous experiences and re-evaluate their responses after taking the new knowledge in first aid and emergency response.
Being partners of success and means for sustainability inside their schools, teachers were involved from the beginning in orientation and training courses to carry on the responsibility of replicating the training courses for other children.
Different IEC materials including booklets, flyers, posters and worksheets were developed and the logo of the program were designed.