PFM-1 is a pressure-activated anti-personnel blast mine; OZM-72 is a bounding fragmentation mine that causes circular damage. Does a child need to know that to protect themselves from an explosive ordnance? Not at all! What knowledge would be truly useful and effective at shaping safe behavior among children?
International standards determine that mine-awareness education for children and adolescents consists of four simple components, says Hugues Laurenge, a child protection specialist at the UNICEF headquarters in New York, and an expert of the “How To Teach Children Mine Safety” online course developed by the Cultural Platform Zakarpattya NGO.
Hugues Laurenge has spent more than 20 years teaching explosive ordnance risk education (EORE)—and there are four clear elements he thinks anyone teaching mine safety to children should follow.
First pillar—EO identification
To ensure that, it is enough to explain to the child what color and size they are, what they can be made of, and what they resemble in shape. It is unnecessary to introduce specific types of EO or talk about the principles of their action.
“We don’t need children to specialize in EO and their mechanism of action. The goal is not to make children into sappers or experts at these deadly devices. The goal of mine-awareness education and our goal as specialists who provide it is to save as many lives as possible <…>,” warns Hugues Laurenge.
Second pillar—locations
Children must be able to not only recognize dangerous objects but also locations that hold potential danger. It is best to give examples of such locations using pictures or photos and explain what to pay attention to while being in such places to avoid mine danger.
Third pillar—marking signs
“Any child and any adult must be able to recognize warning signs whether they are official or unofficial ones”, Hugues Laurenge notes.
Fourth pillar—action
The international expert believes that this aspect is “perhaps the most important one“. If a child comes across an EO, they should know a clear algorithm of actions: do not touch, do not approach, and report the danger.
If a child is introduced to the topic of mine safety through this approach, gained knowledge will be effective and will contribute to the establishment of safe behavior.
We invite everyone who teaches mine safety to kids and adolescents to sign up for the “How to Teach Children Mine Safety” online course in order to learn more about effective mine-awareness education principles that follow international standards!
Olena Smirnova-Kochetkova