Summer is no holiday for young farm safety campaigners

Two web savvy youngsters from Cloghan's Hill NS, a tiny 12-pupil school straddling the Mayo-Galway border, are not letting the summer holidays put a hold on their passionate drive to promote farm safety among their peers.

Padraic Godwin (9 ) and Aoibheann Mangan (8 ) are the brains behind a new website called Farmsafety4kids, which scooped a prestigious website design prize - called an Eircom Junior Spider Award - earlier this year.  

Last week, the young campaigners took a break from their summer holidays to issue a new appeal to children and their parents across rural Ireland to visit their website to help tackle the tragedy of child farm fatalities this summer. 

In 2014, 30 people died on Irish farms, including six children.

"That means that one in every five deaths was a child, making it a very dangerous place for us kids," said Padraic and Aoibheann. 

"In 2015 already, there has been one child killed on the farm. A little boy who was nearly two died when a steel gate fell on him on a farm.

"There have already been a number of adult fatalities this year too."

Padraic and Aoibheann said the school holidays can be a more dangerous time for children on farms.

"Lots of children live on farms and many of us live near farms and or visit farms during the year, but the holiday time is one of the high peak farm accident times for kids. We think this is because we are off school and are around the place more," they explained.

"We would love everyone to visit www.farmsafety4kids.net, young or old, because there are important messages on there for everyone to learn and follow."

Padraic and Aoibheann started Farmsafety4kids as part of a school project. 

The website offers advice for children and their parents on issues such as tractor safety, animal safety, water and electricity safety, and road safety on the farm. 

All of the information is offered in a colourful, child friendly, format and is easy to read and understand.

See www.farmsafety4kids.net for more.

 

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