KEAT Competition Camps are Included in OLE’s Calendar of Events
The competition camp for children called “Protect yourself and help others” or KEAT was organised in Järva County already for the 10th time. The knowledge necessary for everyday life was brought to children by police officers, rescue personnel, medical doctors, etc. OLE also contributed to the success of the camp that was held on May 18-19 by inviting the participants of the camp to its tent to think about railway safety issues through exiting questions and exercises.
“What can a locomotive driver do for stopping a train if he notices a pedestrian whose foot has been caught between a switch?” “How can a person’s foot be caught between a switch whilst walking on railway tracks?“ “What is the breaking distance of a 7000-tonne freight train which moves 90 km/h?“ “Could a train stop here if it came from that big building over there?“ These are the questions people do not ask themselves in their everyday life. Even those living in the close proximity to railways and seeing trains every day are often surprised when they hear about the dangers present on railways and the limited opportunities of railway employees for preventing accidents from happening.
In order to get feedback about the efficiency of the campaigns organised by OLE, all the schools present had to guess the slogans of each campaign. The results were surprisingly good. Such good results were probably achieved thanks to the fact that all the participants of the Järva County KEAT camp had participated in OLE’s railway safety presentations during which were mentioned also the campaign slogans.
OLE also organised an exiting contest for the participants of the camp for enhancing their creativity and making them think about safety tools and the skills needed for their use. Each school drew a name of a safety tool and by the evening it had to prepare an advertisement explaining the importance of the tool to the audience. The tool related to railway safety was level crossing gates and we were happy to see that the advertisement was excellent and right to the point.
Only a week later similar camps with OLE’s involvement were held in Pärnu and Harju counties. We used a similar programme and the participating children were very interested in railway safety issues. The Harju county KEAT was attended only by children from 6th grade but in other parts of the country could participate also children from grades 7 and 8. The two-day KEAT camp of Harju county was attended by pupils from 24 schools, which means that useful knowledge was obtained by one third of children going to school in Tallinn and Harju county surrounding the capital.
The KEAT camps have been organised all over Estonia for several years. The first camp where OLE was involved was the Järva County KEAT organised last year. We believe that OLE will continue participating in the camp also in the forthcoming years and it will become one of our traditions. We hope to see many children interested in safety in our tent and OLE will be happily ready to share its knowledge on safety issues.