Vodafone dials in to child safety with Bravehearts and Ditto
TELCO giant Vodafone has
dialled in to child safety and education after raising funds for Bravehearts to
deliver its Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure program in South Tasmania.
Children who attend Blackman’s
Bay Goodstart Early Learning Childcare Centre will be the first to benefit from
the $10,000 donation when Ditto arrives on Wednesday May 29.
Vodafone Contact Centre staff in Huntingfield raised close to $2,500
which was then matched by the Vodafone Australia Foundation. An additional $5000 was also donated via a
grant approved by the Vodafone Australia Foundation.
Bravehearts Tasmania Manager Janelle Larkin said more than
12,000 children state-wide (Tasmania) have now been educated on personal safety
since the first Ditto show at Evandale in 2011.
“The Ditto program is a 40-minute live production tailored
for children from pre-school to Grade 3 that effectively teaches strategies and
skills to stay safe in a range of situations from sexual assault to bullying,”
said Ms Larkin.
Bravehearts has operated in Tasmania since 2010 with an
education team based in Launceston, travelling around the state educating,
empowering and protecting children to ensure they’re equipped with skills to
handle an unsafe situation.
The program teaches personal safety skills and underpins
children’s instinctive understandings and feelings around their personal safety
in a way that is non-confronting, safe and highly effective.
Since its first Australian school show in Brisbane in 2006
the Ditto live show has expanded and is now delivered across nine regional
areas in four States (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania).
The waiting list of schools eager to participate in the
program is months long and Bravehearts will soon reach a milestone when the
show reaches its 300,000th child in July.
“A big thank you to the
dedicated staff at Vodafone who took the initiative to raise funds for Aussie
kids,” said Ms Larkin.
Research shows a
staggering 1 in 5 children are sexually assaulted before they reach the age of
18, or 59,000 children annually in Australia. Bravehearts aims to half this
number by 2020 by educating, empowering and protecting.
The first Ditto
Show in Southern Tasmania will take place at Blackmans Bay Goodstart Childcare
Centre, 11 Opal Drive, Wednesday May 29, 10:00am.