A fight against the foremost killer of children
In 1983 a number of ambitious pediatric surgeons decided to attack the foremost killer of children, the injury. They constituted the “Austrian Committee of Injury Prevention in Childhood”, i.e. SAFE KIDS Austria / GROSSE SCHUETZEN KLEINE. From the very beginning the non-profit organization dedicated all its efforts to the creation of a safe world for our children. For a successful realization of this vision it is, however, essential to inform as many people as possible on the importance and the feasibilities of childhood injury prevention:
Today 1,3 million children and 1 million families are reached by our messages.
The work of our committee is based on the following five pillars of injury prevention:
| Education | increasing safety-awareness and knowledge on injury prevention |
| Empowerment | encouraging parents as well as communities to take over a sense of responsibility for more childhood safety |
| Environment | to promote a safe environment for children |
| Enactment | advocating for laws and regulations to increase childhood safety |
| Evaluation | carrying out research projects and evaluation of childhood safety programs |
Successful by networking
To reach families all over Austria SAFE KIDS Austria / GROSSE SCHUETZEN KLEINE acts within a hospital based network – because who knows more about risk areas and problems than the local medical center?
Therefore we have local branch offices in nearly every Austrian province and besides taking part in national programs the experts of the branches are pleading for child safety by special local activities best suitable for their areas.