Injury Facts

• Approximately 1.6 million children are injured in Germany each year due to accidental injury, the most frequent cause of death for children ages 1 to 14

• 383 children died from accidental injuries in 2005.

• The leading cause of accidental childhood injury death in Germany is motor vehicle crashes followed by drowning, burns, falls and poisoning.

Who We Are

For a long time, there was no German institution primarily focused on preventing childhood injury at home and during leisure time.

Safe Kids Germany/Mehr Sicherheit für Kinder has closed this gap and has been working as an umbrella organization and legal institution since 1997 (incorporated association since 2002).

We actually have 45 member organizations!

What We Do

Safe Kids Germany/Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder focuses on local projects as well as Europe-wide and international exchange and cooperation to increase public awareness of accidental childhood injuries.

The organization is working to put injury prevention on the National Health Agenda and in the minds of everyone involved. Safe Kids Germany developed a child safety action plan for Germany and has started  its  implementation in 2007.

Organizing various preventative programs, campaigns and exhibitions Safe Kids Germany addresses the goal to reduce childhood injury by 20% until 2012. As in Germany there is a lack especially in home safety, Safe Kids Germany focuses on injury prevention at home.

Where are we now? ( July 2005 - Recent Programs)

National Child Safety Day

Safe Kids Germany/ Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder launched its sixth annual National Child Safety Day on June 8 with the theme " Bounce and Balance: promoting motor activity-preventing childhood injury." Inadequate physical activity hinders the development of motor skills and makes a child more susceptible to injury. As a result, National Child Safety Day concentrated on specific motor activities in homes, schools and sports arenas that increase visual perception skills, coordination and reactions. Safe Kids Germany also announced the Primary School Contest for 8 to 10-year-olds. Children were asked to develop and film a performance (theatre, dance or song) on the subject "motor activity and injuries." The contest's objective is to make teachers and students more aware of the subject, encourage teamwork and promote physical activity.

Child Safety Hotline

In March 2005, Safe Kids Germany /Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder launched a telephone hotline to answer child safety questions from the public. Renate Künast, the German Minister of Consumer Safety, announced the hotline, and it was featured in leading media. With funding from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, the hotline is designed to provide valuable safety tips, empower parents and caregivers, and contribute to safety device use. The hotline is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

National Program for Injury Prevention

Safe Kids Germany / Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder  supports "Action Plan: More Safety for Children 2010." The program, suggested in 2003 by the National Program for Injury Prevention and supported by the Ministry of Health and Social Security, is designed to expand injury prevention. For its part, Safe Kids Germany / Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder  is planning:

• Campaigns to inform the public on the benefits of injury prevention

• Awareness for and motivation of parents to adopt safety-conscious behavior

• Increased regional structures to spread measures over all of Germany

• Programs that reach difficult-to-target groups

• Development and implementation of concepts for age-related, integrated, environment-related safety education

• Definition of quality standards for media

Safe Kids - Child Safety for the Youngest

This model project aims to inform young parents about childhood injury prevention through personal communication in child-parent groups. To facilitate these groups, 100 courses will be conducted on childhood injury prevention.  The pilot phase started in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2004.  On May 5, there was a kickoff press conference in Dortmund . Radio channel WDR 5, Safe Kids Germany/Mehr Sicherheit Für Kinder's media partner, and sponsor Johnson & Johnson Penaten were present. 

older than age 1. The goal for 2005 is to reach 150 parent-child groups in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as Rhineland-Palatinate.

Addressing Safety Awareness for Migrant Children

In April 2004, a press conference was held at the City House in Cologne to publicize the Cologne coalition's campaign to provide local parents with age-specific child injury prevention and safety pamphlets. The primary targets of the campaign are the 15,000 migrant children living in the area who are considered a high-risk group for injury. Translated materials were made available in Russian, Turkish and Serbo-Croatian. Currently, 94 pediatricians hand out the pamphlets to parents during children's medical checkups. Two local papers, the major Turkish migrant paper and three radio stations provided media coverage of the event.

Additional Resources

Database on Childhood Injury Prevention
www.bzga.de/kindersicherheit

Health Education (BZgA) evaluated the methods, activities, materials and media for childhood injury prevention in Germany.

The results give insight into what programs are available and which need to be improved.

The data were collected in an online database that serves as a research and networking instrument.