This month, KID intern, Madonna Salto spoke virtually to a Spanish-speaking parent support group at a Thompson Child & Family Focus educational workshop. She translated KID’s Safe From the Start webinar, focusing on unsafe products and fostering a safe environment for children. Below is her experience:
I enjoyed engaging with the parents and being able to foster interaction with children in mind. Spanish-language outreach is a working initiative for KID, therefore planning educational programs that reach larger populations solidifies our mission to saving lives in diverse communities. This presentation was comprehensive, discussing the U.S. product safety system and topics such as infant safe sleep, common and emerging hazards, the product safety checklist and product registration. I’m grateful parents were provided translated resources and tools. It ensures they are included in our outreach.
A big takeaway from that evening for me was being able to listen to a few mothers themselves about their experiences with unsafe products. There were experiences I heard with second-hand shopping for children’s products and the confusion around properly vetting their safety, as well as decorating cribs with items that risk suffocation. I was moved by their dedication to better care for their own children against the backdrop of product-related deaths and recalls affecting many.
It was a wonderful, fulfilling opportunity to be a voice for KID on product safety. I look forward to continuing to represent KID and increasing our participation at more Spanish-language community organizations. The future of product safety starts with an informed community of parents, caregivers, experts, and legislators, and advocating for such an important issue through outreach will continue to build on this network and include them in the movement of championing safer consumer products.
KID hopes to provide inclusive and equitable resources to all our parent groups and the work interns do towards this goal is incredibly important. In honor of National Volunteer Week, we would like to thank all of our hard-working interns and volunteers, like Madonna, who dedicate their time and energy to our life-saving mission.
If your organization would like KID to present our Safe From the Start workshop (or webinar) to your group of parents, caregivers, home visitors, or health professionals, in English or Spanish, please contact Sahiti Pidaparti.
