Providing secure car seats to families in need can help to prevent or lessen the severity of head injuries in children, says the African Brain Child.
The clinical and research initiative is based in the paediatric neurosurgery unit at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and is affiliated with UCT’s Neuroscience Institute.
For Transport Month, this month, it has launched the Be Quick to Click Car Seat Drive, a campaign to put more children into secure car safety seats.
Professor Anthony Figaji, the head of African Brain Child and paediatric neurosurgery at Red Cross, said the children’s hospital had seen the human cost of vehicle crashes in children who could not be saved due to the severity of their head injuries as well as those who could be saved but whose lives had been forever changed by injuries that could have been prevented by the click of a seatbelt.
Statistics from the African Brain Child research group in paediatric neurosurgery at UCT showed that the children’s hospital saw some 2 000 children between the ages of 0 -12 with head injuries annually, and 96% had not worn seatbelts.
The public can support the Be Quick to Click Car Seat Drive by donating or sponsoring car sets. These can be dropped off at any Supa Quick branch nationwide.
Car seats will be donated to needy families at Supa Quick, on the corner of Main and Constantia Main roads, Plumstead, on Saturday October 26, from 9am to noon.
Visit bequicktoclick.com for more information.
