Protecting the young

For Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd, doing business is not only making drugs. Saving children is also another important task.

Safe Kids Worldwide was founded in 1987 by the US Children's National Medical Center with support from Johnson & Johnson.

"Safe Kids Worldwide has saved 38,000 children's lives since it was founded," Dragon Chuang, the general manager of Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd, tells China Business Weekly.

In 1999, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd introduced the Safe Kids organization to China and started an online campaign to educate parents about how to keep children away from accidental injuries. The program covers more than 400,000 children and parents every year.

A volunteer of Shanghai Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd distributes literature on protecting kids' safety among the public.

Lack of self-protection by children and parents' ignorance of accidental injury prevention for children are factors that cause many child deaths yearly, Chuang says.

Accidental injury is the leading cause of death for children ages 0 to 14 in China, and represents more than 16 percent of all the country's child deaths each year.

A survey by Safe Kids China and Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals Ltd found that from 2002-2005, about 50,000 children, or 150 a day, under 14- years-old die from accidental injuries every year in China.

"Falls, poison ingestion, burns and suffocation are accidental injuries that often happen to children," says Cui Minyan, director of Safe Kids China.

The rate of the accidental injuries among children in Guangzhou is about 20 percent, higher than Beijing's 16 percent and Shanghai's 12 percent.

Falls, hits, sprains, cuts and traffic accidents are the top five accidental injuries for children in Guangzhou.

Nearly 40 percent of the injuries are from children falling down accidentally.

A month-long Child Safety Project focusing on building up the first accidental injury prevention surveillance reporting system for preschool students in Guangzhou was launched earlier this month through a partnership among the Guangzhou Women and Children Medical Care Center, Safe Kids China and Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals.

Guangzhou Children's Hospital attends to more than 300 children involved in these accidents each year, says the hospital.

Food choking and injuries due to failure to use seat belts were two leading causes of accidental injuries and deaths.

Most were injured at home or at schools, despite the presence of parents or teachers.

Wang Hongtao, vice-director of Guangzhou Children's Hospital, says summer vacation brings more outdoor activities for children, making it a time when it is especially important for parents to be attentive.

"Proper prevention can effectively avoid accidental injuries from happening," Wang says.

Li Xinyi, a 7-year-old elementary school girl in Guangzhou, was almost thrown out of her father's car after she forgot to fasten her seat belt and her father made a sudden U-turn. The accident injured her legs.

"The experience taught me that family prevention of accidents should be made whenever and anywhere," the little girl says.

The good news is that as many as 1,680 kindergartens in Guangzhou will be included in the accidental injury prevention surveillance report system. They will have their safety situation regularly evaluated in an effort to prevent them from being injured.

Moreover, the project will teach nurses at the 1,680 kindergartens how to deal with emergency accidents and how to better prevent them. The same training is also provided to about 500,000 parents.

For the past nine years, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals has held Safe Kids Week campaigns throughout China on June 1, Children's Day.

"We have a very clear purpose to bring health and safety to every child and family in China," Chuang stresses.

In 1999, the company sent more than 3,000 posters on child traffic safety to 562 elementary schools and 39 communities.

A year later, it collaborated with Shanghai Red Cross and the national and Shanghai women's federations to hold safety campaigns in 19 cities. The campaigns were expanded to 21 cities in 2001.

In 2002, Shanghai Johnson & Johnson established the mobile Safety and Health School for Parents. The school's services covered 500 kindergartens and trained 50,000 parents about safety in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan and Ningbo in 2003.

As of 2005, the school trained more than 500 healthcare staff who have educated 150,000 parents about child safety.

Last year, Johnson & Johnson became a partner of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. With the theme of Safe Sports and Happy Sports, the campaigns focused on preventing drowning. The campaigns covered 11 cities and educated more than 600 sports teachers.

"We have more than 200 staff involved in different kinds of events on advocating the importance of children's safety every year," Chuang says.

This year, the company will still spare no effort to educate people about keeping children safe through different events covering more than 500,000 children in 12 cities.

(China Daily 06/16/2008 page8)