Red Cross Flanders campaign teaches children first aid and emergency number
Red Cross Youth Flanders has launched a new campaign, Children Can Save Lives, intended to teach children and young people how to respond in an emergency.
Timed to coincide with European 112 Day, the campaign focuses on social media to raise awareness of the emergency number 112 and basic first aid skills. According to Gaëlle Huysentruyt, manager at Red Cross Youth Flanders, many children do not know 112 by heart. “Children can do a lot. They just need to learn how,” she said.
Many children would not know how to react if a parent fell down the stairs or a grandparent collapsed. The campaign seeks to raise awareness from a young age, as well as encouraging adults to refresh their own first aid knowledge.
To engage children, the Bruges branch of the Red Cross Youth Flanders has created a social media video and online game where children and parents can learn the basics of first aid. For younger children, the focus is on recognising an emergency, calling 112 and providing key details such as location, what happened and who is injured.
Each year, around 2,500 children and young people in Flanders receive first aid training from Red Cross Flanders. While first aid is included in the secondary school curriculum, Huysentruyt notes that many teenagers still lack confidence in handling emergencies.
#FlandersNewsService | A Red Cross worker at the Graspop Metal Meeting music festival © BELGA PHOTO JASPER JACOBS
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