Even though some parties involved in the safety awareness campaign of the City of Johannesburg had complaints about it, the intent of it was fulfilled. Children showed a great understanding of safety issues in a Q and A session at the end.
The campaign was hosted at Tshedimosho Primary School in Mofolo with the sole purpose of educating children about how to stay safe on the road, swimming pools and at home.
‘’We feel we need to target the young children in primary schools because of they, in turn, educate the parents, the cousins and everybody else at home.
“They will understand the services provided by the City of Johannesburg at an early age and also understand the issues regarding safety plus how the municipality works with those issues,’’ said Nomvula Dlame from City of Johannesburg, Citizen Relationship Management- Region D.
‘’Children are not concerned about service delivery, safety is what is important to them.’’
The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), Emergency Medical Services (E.M.S) and the Department of Transport were in attendance to teach the children about various safety issues.
Tshidiso Monareng, Master Police Officer (MPO) of JMPD was the favourite amongst the children as he educated them about road safety through the use of edutainment.
‘’Children learn more through edutainment. We teach them about road safety through song and dance because there’s a greater chance that while on the road they will remember the song and start practicing what they learned about road safety,’’ said Monareng.
Sheila Bogaqa from EMS taught the children about how to stay safe while swimming and how to stay safe from fires since the first stages of Winter have begun.
She also had her own suggestions about how the campaign could have been carried out in a better manner.
‘’The campaign was great as it gave children more information about safety, however, it was not hosted at an appropriate place for children because there were no chairs for them and they also had to stand in the sun,’’
The principal of Tshedimosho Primary School, Bongani Mgoqi also had a thing or two to add.
‘’It was okay, I feel it will help the children however the presentation was too long.
“You must understand that the concentration span of learners cannot stretch for more than an hour.’’
Dlame said she wants to involve more organisations that deal with safety in future campaigns.
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