"Safe Home for Children" Model: Is it Safe?

(Baonghean) - To contribute to the prevention of accidents and injuries to children, since 2011, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has implemented the construction of the model "Safe House for Children". Up to now, according to reports, there have been more than 17 thousand houses that meet the "Safe House" criteria. But do these "Safe Houses" ensure safety criteria?

Before 2011, every year in our province, nearly 1,000 children died due to accidents and injuries, including drowning, burns, electric shock, traffic accidents, poisoning, animal bites, etc. In response to this situation, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 943/QD-UBND dated March 28, 2011 on promulgating a plan to prevent and combat child injuries in the period 2011-2015. After the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs issued Decision No. 548/QD-LDTBXH dated May 6, 2011 on promulgating the criteria for "Safe Houses" to prevent child injuries, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs issued guidelines for building "Safe Houses" and selected one commune and ward in each district, city, town to build a pilot model.

Unsafe items for children are not properly arranged in the "safe house" of Mr. and Mrs. Doan Huu Ly - Hoang Thi Hang in Thai Hoa hamlet, Nghi Thai commune (Nghi Loc).

Hung Thang Commune (Hung Nguyen) is one of the first three communes in the province to be selected to pilot the construction of a safe house model since 2011, in which Hamlet 17 is the first hamlet chosen to implement. Ms. Nguyen Thi Nga - a children's collaborator of the hamlet said: Hamlet 17 has 90/92 households with children under 16 years old and currently about 95% of households meet the criteria of "Safe house for children".

However, in reality, do “safe houses ensure safety criteria?”. For example, the family of Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen Van Dinh - Pham Thi Vinh was classified by Hung Thang commune as meeting the “Safe House” standards. Their family has 2 children, 1 born in 2005 and 1 born in 2013. The family of 4 lives in a level 4 house, the kitchen area is separate but the area leading to the kitchen does not have a door, items such as gas stove, thermos, knife rack, electrical outlets… are not placed out of reach of children. There is also no medicine cabinet in the house to provide timely first aid to children in case of accidents or injuries. Mr. Dinh said: “We are busy all day long. During the week, our first child goes to school, the second child goes to kindergarten, and in the summer, he is sent to his grandparents. Normally, my husband and I pay attention to protecting the children's safety, such as keeping sharp objects out of their reach, carefully covering the pot of rice and hot soup at mealtimes, and not letting the children play in wells, ponds, etc. As for my family being recognized as meeting the "Safe Home" standards, I am not sure how we met the criteria.”

Ms. Nga - a child collaborator of the hamlet, said: From 2011 until now, every month, every quarter, through women's meetings, she has been promoting the "Safe House" model to members. Every year, following the direction of the commune, she still conducts surveys of families in the hamlet to evaluate the "Safe House" model. However, when we asked about the total number of criteria and the minimum number of criteria to be recognized as a safe house, Ms. Nga seemed confused and could not answer. Mr. Le Van Thuy - policy officer of Hung Thang commune said: "As a model commune of Hung Nguyen district in building "Safe Houses", the activities have only stopped at training for child collaborators, then propagating to households, while monitoring and supporting families to implement measures to ensure the criteria of a safe house is still very limited due to lack of funding. If a serious survey is conducted, most households currently do not ensure safety according to the 33 criteria of a "Safe House for Children" as instructed."

Nghi Thai Commune (Nghi Loc) was chosen to build the model 1 year ago. Mr. Doan Huu Anh - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: "Nghi Thai has more than 2,100 households with children under 16 years old. For many years, there have been no deaths or serious injuries of children related to accidents in the commune. Selected by the district to build a pilot model of "Safe House for Children" in July 2014, the commune sent policy officers and child collaborators from hamlets to participate in training courses organized by the district's Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, then propagated the purpose and significance of the model through the loudspeaker system, through conferences and meetings in the commune, in hamlets, through the network of child collaborators... After 2 months, that is, September 2014, the commune organized a survey of the current situation, comparing it with the criteria of "Safe House". As a result, nearly 2,000 households, accounting for 95%, met the criteria to be recognized as "Safe House". However, Mr. Anh also admitted that since then, the commune has not yet surveyed again to evaluate the changes after nearly a year of implementing this model.

Visiting the family of Mr. and Mrs. Doan Huu Ly and Ms. Hoang Thi Hang in Thai Hoa hamlet, Nghi Thai commune (Nghi Loc), they are one of the households that meet the criteria of "Safe house". Mr. Ly and Ms. Hang have 2 small children, a 9-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy. When we arrived, it was harvest time, so around the house, corn and peanuts were scattered around, tools such as knives, forks, rakes, etc. were left everywhere. Inside the house, the kitchen area also had no doors and locks, the water thermos and electrical outlets were placed at low levels, posing a potential safety risk for children. Ms. Hang said: "My family has never heard of the safe house model and no officials from the hamlet or commune came to propagate or survey anything." When we showed them the criteria for a safe house and asked, "So you try to "rate" yourself to see if your house meets the criteria of a "Safe house"?", Ms. Hang shook her head: "Probably not, sir."

Unsafe items for children are not properly arranged in the safe house of Mr. and Mrs. Doan Huu Ly - Hoang Thi Hang in Thai Hoa hamlet, Nghi Thai commune (Nghi Loc).

According to the report of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, from 2011 to now, the Department has directed and guided the construction of a pilot model of "Safe Houses" to prevent child injuries in 17 communes in 17 districts with 167,136 houses considered to have achieved "Safe Houses". That means that on average each commune has 9,800 safe houses - a number too large compared to reality, when the average population of each commune in the province is only approximately 6,200 people. Besides, according to the report, the number of "Safe Houses" has increased every year but there is no report evaluating the effectiveness of the model.

Ms. Nguyen Thi My Luong, Deputy Head of the Department of Child Care and Protection - Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs admitted: "Regarding the activities to implement the "Safe House" model, due to financial constraints, we have only stopped at organizing local conferences to disseminate and implement Decision No. 548/QD-LD-TB&XH of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and Decision No. 943/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee; organizing surveys and assessing the current situation of child injuries to develop a plan to prevent and combat child injuries in the period of 2011 - 2015 of the locality; organizing training activities for staff working on children at the commune and hamlet levels... Every year, the districts have not yet had specific reports assessing the effectiveness of the model".

Thus, it can be affirmed that the construction of the "Safe House" model has not been thoroughly implemented and has not created a change in the prevention of child injuries. Therefore, in order for the "Safe House" model to become a reality, it is necessary to have a reasonable implementation method from the sectors and localities, from propaganda, monitoring the implementation to summarizing, evaluating and drawing lessons. Most importantly, propaganda must be carried out regularly, in many forms so that parents can access child safety programs at home and in the community, especially skills in handling injuries, timely first aid when children have accidents, teaching children how to recognize and prevent injuries... and spend time caring for and managing their children to ensure their safety.

Minh Quan