About Us

Kidsafe was established in 1979 to focus the attention of policy makers and the community at large on the need for improved child safety measures.

Kidsafe SA Incorporated is the South Australian licensee of the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia (CAPFA), a national organisation devoted to the prevention of unintentional death and injuries to children. Kidsafe SA is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to preventing unintentional deaths and reducing the incidence and severity of injuries to children aged less than 15 years. Our underpinning philosophy is ‘Prevention is better than cure’.

Unintentional injuries are a major cause of disability, which can have a long-lasting impact on all facets of a child’s life; relationships, learning and play (WHO & UNICEF 2008). Injury has a major, but often preventable, impact on the health of young Australians.

Unfortunately these accidents are very often predictable and therefore often preventable. In the 40+ years since the establishment of Kidsafe, the number of children killed as a result of accidental injury has more than halved.

Kidsafe, along with other like-minded agencies has undoubtedly played a major role in this decrease.

However, injury is still one of the leading causes of death in Australian children aged 0-14 years, and is also a major cause of hospitalisation (28% of injury-related emergency department presentations were children aged 0-14 years) (AIHW 2018). Between 2014 and 2016, there were 547 deaths of children aged 0-14 years, a rate of 4.1 deaths per 100,000 children (AIHW 2018).

There is still more work to be done! Through the provision of information, education, training, advocacy, and working in collaboration and partnership with like-minded organisations, Kidsafe SA works to influence legislation, state and local governments, schools, organisations, communities and families to become more aware of how to reduce unintentional childhood death and injuries.

‘Every day around the world the lives of… families are torn apart by the loss of a child to unintentional injury or so-called ‘accidents’ that could have been prevented. The grief that these families suffer – mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents and friends – is immeasurable and often impacts on entire communities. Such tragedy can change lives irrevocably’. As stated by WHO & UNICEF (2008 p vii)

 

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