Development and Scaling-up of an Operational Network among Local Administration Organizations to Prevent Drowning of Children in Eastern Thailand

Abstract

Over 1,500 Thai children died from drowning annually. This has been the leading cause of  deaths in children under 15 years old, which was twice as high as those of trafic accidents. The majority of deaths occurred in natural water resource, followed by household water sources. Seven provinces in the Eastern region have high incidence of child drowning; and Chachoengsao province in particular has been in the top-ten leading provinces for 5 consecutive years. Therefore, the authors had set an objective of this study to build capacity and readiness of local administration organizations (LAOs) and the communities to be aware of the problem and implement a programme for the prevention. Scaling-up of the interventions was also planned to cover high risk areas in the region. The programme began during 2012-2013 in 4 LAOs with the drowning problem in 3 districts of Chachoengsao. It started with recruitment of operation team of 10 members comprising of personnel from ocal administrative organizations, sub-district health promotion hospitals, as well as teachers, police, rescue volunteers, civil defense, community leaders and village health volunteers. Appreciation Influence Control & Participatory Rural Appraisal (AIC & PRA) were applied in the process. Programme activities included situation analysis on the causes of drowning, identification of dangerouse water sources, learning on how to survive drowning (survival swimming) as well as demonstration and practices, utilization of life-saving devices produced from recycled materials, continued motivation, folowing-up, and technical recommendations by the authors, and organization of platform for experinece sharing twice a year. Data were collected through observation, follow-up reports, and collection of lessons leant from the operation. As a result, each participating LAO had applied the model to educate people, demonstrate, and train on drowning survival. Warning signs were produced; protective fences were installed surrounding dangerous water sources; and life-saving devices with instruction were placed at locations where children like to swim. Some LAOs constructed fix-scheduled community water sources for children with guards to stand-by. All the achievements were the results of the concern of local authorities who provided financial support for the operation and the strength of the operation teams which led to increasing participation within the communities. The regular stimulation and the arrangement of experience sharing platforms across the sites had resulted in further motivation to expedite programme implementation within there own communities.