Ferndale Nursery School invited the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to spend some fun time with the little ones while teaching them about road safety.
The children were ecstatic to see the JMPD officer and car arrive at their school and provided excellent responses to the majority of the questions posed to them.
Teacher Jeanine du Toit explained that as they are situated on a very busy road and some parents park outside school grounds, they saw it fit to have JMPD teach kids to be safe in that situation.
“It is important to teach kids how to be safe when out and about with parents. It is very important to teach children how to be safe since not everyone on the road follows the rules, and at this age they are at risk if they do not know how to keep themselves safe.”
The kids were more willing to listen and interact with JMPD community outreach officer Vogan Ebrahim.
Ebrahim explained that it is not something new for them – they do it every day. They visit nursery and pre-schools, primary and secondary schools too as part of their road safety initiative.
“We always run these initiatives throughout the year. It is sad to hear a child was knocked down by a car – something that could have been avoided.”
He explained that it is critical that they teach them now, especially as the festive season approaches.
“Most kids will be at home playing, running around the streets and there is no supervision over them – so they need to be equipped with the safety and awareness campaign we do.”
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