This project aims to create awareness among European school children about the risks caused by fire, its prevention and the most important measures to put in place in case of emergency and fire. Children are one of the most vulnerable target groups, especially children from underprivileged backgrounds (roma, immigrants, socio-economic problems, etc). Through this project, the partners will develop and implement a European training course for school children and for their teachers that will run in the context of a ‘SOS Fire! Campaign’ week that will be organised in each participating European school. Activities will include the running of a training course, a school project competition, lectures by experts from the fire brigades, hospitals, scientists, etc. The participation of the parents, families, school staff and the local communities will also be promoted. The training programmes and the SOS Fire! Week programme will be designed by the entire project partnership. At the end of the project the children would not only have gained a better understanding about preventing fires and reacting in case of a fire emergency, but will have also improved their social and civic skills. They will feel more confident and responsible towards the society that they live in. By participating in this project, the school establishments will open themselves to new teaching and learning actors and to the local community. They will provide the students a nice, fun and welcoming environment where to learn and the teachers will be able to introduce new methods from the informal and non formal contexts into their regular teaching ones. As such, the project objectives are, among others: - Improve the skills of young children, their teachers and their families in: o Recognize risk situations o Transform a risk situation into a safe situation o Identify sources of danger o How to act, evacuate and leave in a fast manner o Provide good advice in case of accidents - Provide opportunities for schools to open up to their local community, its local organisations (NGOs, fire brigades, hospitals, public authorities, police forces, etc) and work together with them in the implementation of the SOS Fire! Week programme. - Introduce new teaching and learning methods that could be used by teachers in schools during their lessons. - Bring those external stakeholders to the school establishments so that they also contribute to binging up the future generation of responsible Europeans. - Empower young children so that they feel more confident and responsible towards the society where they live. - Facilitate the integration of students from communities at risk of exclusion by providing them with the skills and tools that they need to live in a secured environment. - Make the school environment more attractive. - Promote school visits from one partner country to another and though confronting the students with a different language and cultural environment. - Create an informal network of schools that will exchange experiences, teaching and learning methods and good practices that will continue to exist once the EU funding is over. - Indirectly, students will also receive employment and career advice from the experts that will participate in the SOS Fire! Week (doctors, nurses, policemen, fire brigades, counselors, consultants, social workers, etc) Target public: - Primary school pupils - Secondary school pupils - School staff: teachers, head teachers, administrative staff, pedagogues, etc. - Parents and families - Local communities: local authorities, fire brigades, hospitals, social workers, NGOs working with deprived communities, etc - European community at large Project Duration: 24 months. The calendar of activities takes into account the school academic year.
The project enabled us to: - Develop educational materials for teachers to facilitate the delivery of fire prevention messages in the primary grades. - Educate teachers and pupils about the risks of fires and burns in schools and at home. With this awareness we aim to make them aware that there are simple and effective gestures to prevent fires or manage crisis situations in case of fire. In other words, the awareness messages are intended to lead to the adoption of reflexes that can save lives. - Develop targeted prevention messages adapted to children. - To encourage and create new synergies between existing practices in the different partner countries. It also allowed to: - Improve the social and civic skills of young children, their teachers and their families. - Provide opportunities for schools to open up to their local community, its local organisations and work together with them in the implementation of the SOS Fire! Week programme. - Bring external stakeholders to the school establishments so that they also contribute to bringing up the future generation of responsible Europeans. - Empower young children so that they feel more confident and responsible towards the society where they live. - Facilitate the integration of students from communities at risk of exclusion by providing them with the skills and tools that they need to live in a secured environment. - Create an informal network of schools that will exchange experiences, teaching and learning methods and good practices that will continue to exist once the EU funding is over.
Children are a vulnerable group when it comes to damages caused by fire: Burns are a global public health problem as it is recognised by the World Health Organisation (www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs365/en). Burns result in disfigurement and disability, often with resulting stigma and rejection. Burns occur mainly in the home (a 'secured' environment for most children) and are however preventable. As the WHO explains, along with adult women, children are particularly vulnerable to burns. Burns are the 11th leading cause of death in children aged 1-9 years and are also the 5th most common cause of non-fatal childhood injuries. WHO also claims for a better implementation and development of prevention strategies which include education for vulnerable populations and training of communities. The need for the schools education systems in the partner countries to modernise and to introduce courses and techniques which are more natural to non formal and informal learning environments and to empower and support the role of the teacher. We found a weakness in educational tools on fire and burn prevention in the school environment.With the help of collective intelligence, this project allowed us to develop new tools adapted to the children and the educational material of the school environment, while ensuring the participation of the targeted public in prevention activities.