Water Wise Campaign

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Below you will find all the Water Wise national campaign activities that took place in 2004 and 2003. The 2005 activities plus all the promotional materials are in the Current Activities section under Campaigns.

2004

Austria
Within this ongoing campaign (launched in 2002), SAFE KIDS Austria / Grosse schützen Kleine managed to get free advertising at the one and only private TV station in Austria: a commercial on childhood drowning was shown 20 times this summer warning parents never to leave their children alone in and around the water.

SAFE KIDS 's project partner, the Austrian Lifeguard Association, is also editing a brochure on water safety and displays posters with water safety tips and is presenting the water safety commercial at events throughout Austria. At the end of July an Austrian wide 'Be waterwise' radio campaign has been conducted. The spot is on air five weekends (in the morning) in a row to reach parents driving to a lake, pool etc. An Austrianwide press release on the prevention of childhood drownings on July 9th 2004 marked the beginning of our water safety activities in 2004.

Czech Republic
Netherlands
Portugal
United Kingdom

2003

Austria
Denmark
Greece
Netherlands
The Netherlands has continued their national campaign of last year on the prevention of drowning of children within the age 0-4 years old. In April and May 2003 a radio commercial and television spot was broadcasted in national and local media. On May 18th, the national event named 'Plons' (Splash) was launched, aimed at parents teaching their children to get acquainted with water. A discount plan for armbands and special swimming trunks was linked to this event. A folder for parents and caregivers has also been distributed to child health centres: tips to prevent drowning are placed in different settings: the bath tub, the pond, open water and the swimming pool. The folder is published in five languages. Prior to the campaign, employees of the child health centres were trained during a workshop in giving information on drowning prevention. Additional to the campaign there was a children's contest to design a warning drowning sign to stimulate all national municipalities for policy making.
Check website (Dutch language only): http://www.veiligheid.nl/csi/websiteveiligheid.nsf/wwwVwContent/l2veiligheidsadvieskinderenverdrinking.htm

Portugal
APSI Portuguese Association for Child and Injury Prevention launched a national campaign on Water Safety and Drowning Prevention for Children on the 28th of May. This campaign has had local activities, such as four press conferences (in Lisboa, Faro, Porto and Coimbra) and three seminars for local population; two in the north (Porto, Guimarães) and one in the south (Faro). We have developed a strong image, which is spread by the press with an ad (all the advertising space is being offered for free by more than 50 newspapers and magazines). This image is also on leaflets (2 different ones - one for national use, and the other in Portuguese and English for tourists), posters (English/Portuguese), doctor's advice, sugar packages with 12 different recommendations, banners for sites, and an offer has been made for the production of free postcards. We also have two radio spots, and the Alliance TV spot adapted to Portuguese (five channels offered space for the TV spot). Interviews have been published in major magazines for parents and we have also been invited for a few TV and radio programs.

All of this would not be possible without our partners and total media support, while the financial support is very low, and so the quantities of printed material are not as much as intended. The budget was not enough to cover all the costs, but as APSI has a double commitment of informing, we could not step back at the last minute. Check website: http://www.apsi.org.pt/index.html

United Kingdom