#PNN E-Mentoring (Taiwo Akinlami): Personal Safety/Self Protection For Teenagers – Guidelines To Responses (10)

Hello my dear young friends. Sure you are doing great today. I have been off this platform for two straight weeks and I miss you greatly. I have spent most of my days on the road in recent times attending to the business of child protection. I am actually reaching out to all the strength in me to do this discussion as I and my health appear not to be getting along too well at this time. My body is obviously protesting my hard use. Anyway, as I do this discussion I feel better. I think passion and purpose powerful medicine to the human body.

Let me quickly introduce to you other areas where you need to protect yourself. I announce to you this day that you have a role to play in your protection from domestic accidents. What exactly do we mean by domestic accident? I think we should begin by defining the word, ‘accident.’ It is a mishap, an unfortunate and unplanned occurrence, which may cause temporary or permanent disability or even death to a person. Accident has no respect for environment or place. It happens on the road, on the streets, in the air, in the office, in schools, in the stadium, during an event, during celebrations and at home just to mention a few. The truth of the matter is that the list of places where an accident can occur and has occurred is endless.

Our focus today is accidents, which happen in the home. Please note that, most times we forget that accidents happen in homes and it can sometimes be very fatal. Children and adults alike have lost their lives to domestic accidents. People have died slipping on bath top; people have been seriously injured running into sliding doors, people have been seriously cut by louver blades, people have been cut by knifes, while using same to cook or for other purposes; hot oil and water have poured on people; gas cooker has exploded on many, toilet seats have crashed on people while sitting on it to answer the call of nature and they are seriously injured in the process; people have been caught in domestic fire, generator has caught fire while people are trying to put it on; people have been electrocuted; people have been met with stray bullet in their homes; moving cars have crashed into people’s house and live them injured or dead; people have mistaken poison chemicals for water and drank same; people have mistakenly sat glass, thinking it something else; people have fallen from ladder, chair or table, which they climb on to fix something in the house; a lady once parked her car in her garage and as she walks down the garage, the car rolled back and killed her instantly; recently two boarding school pupils were playing in their room and one of them hit her head on the wall and died instantly; just before, I begin this discussion, I nearly ran into the sliding door in my home. You see, the list is endless.

Permit me to also assure you that though accidents are often said to be inevitable, I strongly believe that they are avoidable with caution. If we can embrace caution and vigilance, we will escape most of the accidents we experience at home.

My goal here is to discuss with you certain measures you can take to prevent and protect yourself from any form of domestic accident. I guess our time is up now. Permit me to return next week and share with you tested tips on how to protect yourself from domestic accident. Please be reminded that I am available on this platform for interaction. Do have an INSPIRED week. Stay SMART!