Spot the Tot in Arab Society
Spot the Tot in Arab Society
According to the Israeli National Authority for Road Traffic Safety (RSA), in the period 2007-2010, 38 Arab children, the equivalent of 2 school classes and mainly infants, were killed by a motor vehicle backing over them while reversing. Arab children, in general, are at a higher risk of motor vehicle accidents due to the socio-economic conditions of their home surroundings such as: high population density, inadequate or impaired physical infrastructure, lack of structure planning and a high rate of vans and heavy motor vehicles per person. These factors lead to the reality that this type of accident is common in nearly every possible location: backyards, parking lots that also function as playgrounds, roads, road margins and sidewalks. The project's approach is based on a strategy of educating parents of infants 0-4 years old with regard to reverse-runover accidents and increasing the general awareness towards the subject. Parents are coached by Arab students and volunteers in small groups in the waiting rooms of local medical clinics, family health centers and community centers in those communities characterized by the RSA as high priority locations. The students and volunteers undergo a short training program to prepare them to be Child Safety Change Agents and qualify them to coach parents with the use of a structured draft and kit. In addition to the parents' training program, specific change agents operate in local kindergartens in front of young infants, by presenting them with Aziz the Teddy Bear, a program developed specifically for small toddlers by Beterem together with the RSA.Spot the Tot was first implemented in Bedouin communities in southern Israel in 2007. Immediately after the project ended, we witnessed a steep decline in the child mortality rate among those Bedouin communities. In 2006 there were 12 recorded incidents of child death related to reverse runover among Bedouin communities in southern Israel. In 2007 there were 3 child death incidents related to reverse runover.