ACCIDENT PREVENTION AT SCHOOL

a 3-way partnership

Building Accident–Awareness…

EACH TIME FOR A LIFETIME

INTRODUCTION: THE PROGRAM

“FAOS – Building awareness for a life-time” is a local partnership program involving the private and public sectors and aiming to promote accident prevention at school. Educational institutions are places where the opportunity exists to cultivate in each child awareness for safety which will last him or her an entire lifetime but where surprisingly there are no teaching facilities or training opportunities for accident prevention.

The idea of creating a partnership between private companies and public sector to support mainstreaming of best practices in preventing accidents at schools was launched on the occasion of the European week for Occupational Health and Safety in October 2000, during a public meeting attended by a government minister, representatives of local authorities, parent’s associations, the press etc. The idea caught on quickly and a Team of Volunteers undertook to prepare the ground work and then launch the FAOS venture.

The Directorate of Secondary Education of the Prefecture of Achaia had already established its own Departments of Environmental and Health Education; for a whole decade these had been developing a full range of activities in related programmes. Through cooperation with organisations and agencies across the local community these departments have supported local teachers by providing methods, educational material and networks, while also offering financial support for the programmes designed by active citizens to create a school more open to community life and action.

The Ministry of Labour’s Centre for the Prevention of Accidents at Work had considerable experience in the prevention and recording of accidents and accident-related dangers in industry and public works.

TITAN Cement Company S.A., since its founding date in 1902 until today, has been established in the cement sector combining its technical and business competence with sensitivity and emphasis on accident prevention. The Company has acquired over the years significant experience and expertise in this field. Workers in heavy industries like cement production tend to be more accident-prone than their counterparts in other sectors. The industry is therefore more aware of the need for care, continuous training, diligence and awareness–building.

TITAN was among the very first companies to adopt a serious response to this problem; its efforts earned the company a number of national and international awards for its successful record in accident prevention, and it has now been acknowledged as a leader in the field. Titan’s experience has always been freely available to enterprises – whether in the public or private sector – seeking to learn from its performance.

It was very decisive that from the very beginning, Professor John Papadopoulos, of Athens University, who is also Vice Chairman of EKAB (Greece’s Emergency Services Organization), joined the team. Professor Papadopoulos has devoted his life to accident prevention in all areas, but first and foremost in schools. Well-known and widely respected, he has provided the professional expertise and experience vital to the success of the FAOS Association.

In March 2001, all the above organisations and individuals agreed to collaborate in order to promote better accident prevention and an improved school environment.

The partnership following its establishment set itself five goals:

-Goal No 1: To set-up a real partnership with representatives of both public and local authorities and local companies.

This goal was achieved early in the day. The partnership was named FAOS, which stands for : “Frontida, Agogi, Organosi, Symmetohi“, in other words : Care, Education, Organization and Participation, but which also means LIGHT in the language of Homer.

The FAOS Association was formally registered as a legal entity in March 2002, with the following members:

  • Mr. Nicolaos Zoumbos, Rector of the University of Patras, who has served as Chairman of the Managing Board of the FAOS Association
  • Mrs. Clio Varou, Head of the Department of Health Education, Secondary Education Directorate, Prefecture of Achaia.
  • Mrs. Androniki Lefa, Head of the Department of Health Education, Primary Education Directorate, Prefecture of Achaia.
  • Mr. Dionysios Messaris, Head of the Department of Environmental Education, Secondary Education Directorate, Prefecture of Achaia.
  • Mrs. Penelope Sakoveli, Head of the Department of Environmental Education, Primary Education Directorate, Prefecture of Achaia
  • Mr. John Monachos, Plant Manager of Titan Cement Co S.A., Patras
  • Mr. Prodromos Papavasiliou, Director, Titan Cement Co S.A., Athens
  • Mr. Nicolaos Sarafopoulos, Head of the Center for Prevention of Occupational Risks of Western Greece.
  • Mr. Elias Panagiotopoulos, Professor at the Medical Department of the University of Patras
  • Mr. Theodoros Papalexopoulos, Member of the Board of Directors of Titan Cement Co, S.A.
  • Mrs. Ioanna Papaioannou, teacher

- Goal No 2: To win over a number of schools that would volunteer to cooperate and be inspected by a team of experts for possible dangerous defects or potential causes of accidents.

Fourteen schools answered the call. As a result, twenty business firms volunteered to share the bill (including TITAN’s matching funds) and repair the most serious defects immediately.

- Goal No 3: To develop experienced task forces among teachers to perform as training facilitators inside schools.

The response was overwhelmingly positive and the long-term training program developed to be attended by teachers who then may perform as trainers for other teachers, included the following main topics:

-Introduction to Safety principles

-Fighting risks as a person and as a team

-Safety at Schools, Risk assessment, Risk Management, Investment and Monitoring

-Development and implementation of Safety programs in Schools

-First Aid

As a result, FAOS is already active in over half of Achaia’s high-schools, running a variety of programmes and activities.

-Goal No 4: To motivate parents’ associations and society at large to support the development of a “preventing accidents mentality”.

This goal we always thought easily attainable because FAOS would be taking care of their children and grand-children. Yet it proved elusive and parents’ associations have offered only limited support so far. To be noted that most childhood accidents occur not at school but at – or near – home, where the parents are in charge of the children. Therefore parents are also badly in need of awareness building. With the aim to accomplish this fourth goal – unexpectedly the toughest one - new efforts and better focused activities will have to be undertaken.

- Fifth and Ultimate Goal: To build a self-sustaining association, an institution both broadly respected and widely supported. A goal that is not out of reach, but a few more years’ endeavor and hard work will be required.

FAOS vision did not stop here: the FAOS concept would not be restricted to the Achaia region area but should embrace the whole country and be transferred and re-produced in other communities and regions. To this end and following the success of the program in Achaia, a new FAOS-type partnership was set up in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, in July 2005.

DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES

The main difficulty encountered – other than that of a slow response by society at large – is that of measuring FAOS effectiveness since there was no official system monitoring accidents at schools. Therefore, current or future statistics will not be fully comparable with the past.

Bearing in mind that the private and the public sectors operate in completely different ways and seldom cooperate, FAOS has been a real challenge in itself: The first step to be achieved was to overcome the barriers and stereotypes amongst the partners.

Moreover, partnership-building is something new, not only for companies, but also for public and local authorities and organizations. Lack of experience from active participants on how to build and manage partnerships has also been a significant parameter of the challenges faced in the FAOS project.

What partners have learned from the FAOS experience is that “Partnership-building is a difficult but feasible issue if carefully managed. There are risks. Yet, avoiding the risks is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.”

PERSPECTIVES AND DILEMMAS

Description of future challenges and problems to be faced through the FAOS partnership provides a clearer definition of the perspectives and the dilemmas related to the specific initiative.

The first three-year pilot phase of the program has offered a valuable experience, however from then on, all activities are incorporated in a three-year Action Plan (actually 2004-2007), so as to facilitate the implementation and evaluation in a more coherent and target-oriented way.

The voluntary operation of a “recording system of accidents and potential accidents” inside schools will remain a core objective for FAOS Association. Monitoring of long term outcomes from such a system may also justify the need for specialists in Health and Safety at Schools and for the introduction of Safety Training as an obligatory course.

FAOS has been built on voluntarism. Thus, motivation on one hand and broader acknowledgement of the volunteers on the other hand, remain significant parameters of the sustainability of FAOS Association. At the same time cooperation building with other NGOs, as well as governmental organizations sharing the same core objectives, need to be examined and developed, in order to strengthen the qualitative impact of initiatives undertaken.

Implementation of the FAOS Program – Short Description of contents

A variety of activities have been implemented so far:

-Identification of safety problems

-Safety audits and assessment of school buildings

-Implementation of a recording system of accidents
and potential accidents inside schools

-Awareness building Seminars for Teachers and Students

-Safety training for teachers

-Open conferences for the local communities

-Interactive workshops

-Creation of educational material

-Education programs at schools

-Cooperation with specialized governmental authorities and NGOs

-Contacts with local businesses, unions and individuals for promotion
and sponsorship purposes.

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