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Child Safety Programs
It is a possibility that everyone in agriculture knows someone whose life has been affected by a farm-related injury or death..... Manitoba Farmers with Disabilities is dedicated to the education of children to better understand the hazards on the farm. Statistics put out by The Canadian Agricultural Surveillance Program (CAISP) for the years 1990 to 2003, reported 4,716 children and youth 19 years and under were admitted to hospital for at least one day for treatment of an agricultural injury. Of those hospitalizations, 53.3% of injuries were machine related. Within those same 14 years, 274 children and youth were killed in agricultural accidents. The top five causes of agricultural fatalities in children and youth aged 1 to 19 were bystander/alighted passenger runovers (17.2%), machine rollovers (15%), extra rider runovers (14.2%), drowning (12.4%), and machine entanglements (5.5%). Machine runovers and rollovers account for almost half of all deaths for children ages 1 to 19 (48.6%). A large number of drowning for children aged 1 to 9 account for 35.6% of deaths in that age group. The top five causes of injuries for this same age group were animal related (17.8%), machine entanglements (15.7%), falls from height (14.8%), machine runovers (8.5%) and being pinned or stuck by a machine (8.1%). Animal related injuries ranked first overall and rated first for children aged 0-4 and aged 10-14 years. Most common for children aged 5 to 9 was falling from a height (usually a barn loft. Youth aged 15 – 19 were mostly injured in machine entanglements and 20% of these youth had permanent disabling amputations. These are staggering statistic! That is why Manitoba Farmers with Disabilities has put the heart of our efforts into providing a children’s safety program. We have designed showcases to demonstrate to children just how fast an accident can happen. Each showcase is designed with 1/16th scale farm machinery models that really work! The children get a hands-on look at the potential dangers in a safe environment. They learn the best way to stay safe. See our Showcase page for more information on each model. The Safety Day program allows communities to pull together a number of safety resources for a one-day event that is hands-on, fun and safe for children. They learn safety lessons in a number of areas such as: fire, water, and sun safety. They learn proper safety around farm animals and machinery. They learn about machine entanglements PTO’s, grain suffocations, and electricity safety. Stations are set up in arenas and community centre and small groups of children are given 15 to 20 minutes at each site. At some Safety Days there are as many as 300 children and adults attending. At each Child Safety program we distribute our Safe Farm Safe Families Colouring book to children under 10 years. This colouring book has received tremendous support from parents, care givers, educators and safety coordinators. They appreciate that our organization is able to provide them free to the communities. The cost of printing the colouring books is generously subsidized by Toews Printing & Office Supply in Carman. We could not cover all the costs without the financial support from the following sponsors: Farm Credit Canada, Monsanto, Bunge, MacDon, and Friesens. Our new project The Farm Safety Interactive CD/DVD for Children should be available by April 2010. This fun and colourful CD will provide farm families with a educational tool to help teach their children the potential hazards on a farm. We are grateful to the following organizations and business for their generous support: Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council Pioneer Hi-Bred Cargill Dairy Farmers of Manitoba Meyer Norris Penny Manitoba Pork Council Starbuck Credit Union Manitoba Farmers with Disabilities is proud to support our communities by attending between 20 to 28 Progressive Agricultural Safety Days as well as 10 to 15 invitations to school events. Education and training in safety means our children will grow to live healthy lives. Our hope is that less injuries and fatalities in the agricultural industry will happen to children.
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