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Accident Prevention
According to Beterem – Safe Kids Israel, morbidity and mortality among Arab children in Israel (from birth to age 18) is 4.2 percent higher than among Jewish children. Mortality resulting from accidents among Arab children in Israel ages 1-4 is 6.2 percent higher than among Jewish children.
Mortality among Arab Bedouin children in the Negev is particularly high. Between 2008-2012, the media reported about 99 cases of children in the south of Israel who died as a result of accidents. Of these cases, 69 were Arab Bedouin. In other words, mortality among Arab Bedouin children in the Negev is nearly three times that of their Jewish counterparts.
Almost three times their share of the population of children in the Southern District.
As a result of accidents.
The infant mortality rate among Arab Bedouin infants in the Negev is three times the national average. One of the main causes of infant mortality (similarly to children and adolescents) in the Bedouin society is home accidents – burns, poisoning, choking and car accidents.
In an effort to mitigate the situation, AJEEC-NISPED, together with Beterem – Safe Kids Israel developed and is implementing a large-scale intervention program. The program includes awareness raising workshops among parents, training children in the community as “safety ambassadors” and a broad media campaign educating the Arab Bedouin community about the gravity of the problem. Community leaders and local Muslim clerics will be significantly involved in the program.
