The Mekong Delta's lush river system is an unwitting background for high numbers of water-based deaths and other accidents. For the past 5 years, Kien Giang Province has recorded over 2,000 cases of children experiencing water-based accidents, with 136 deaths. Building safe houses for children is considered a way of preventing terrible accidents.
The knowledge of how to build a safe home for children was learnt when My Phuoc Commune started implementing a safe houses for children programme. Learning from Lai's family, dozens of other families in Phước Tân are also implementing similar measures.
After 2 years of implementation, 960 household with children in the commune have been registered as safe houses. The majority of the local people have improved their awareness of accident prevention for children. In 2016, the whole commune reported no cases of child-related accidents whether drowning, electrocution or burns.
