An education in electricity and kite flying safety is what students of the Charles F. Broome Memorial Primary School received today, when representatives of the Media Resource Department (MRD) and the Barbados Light & Power (BL&P) visited the institution on Government Hill.

With Easter vacation around the corner and children looking forward to flying kites, BL&P reminded them ???never to fly kites around power lines???; ???never climb trees to rescue kites where power lines lay???; and to call 626-9000, the company???s 24-hour Emergency and Safety number, for a representative to assist.

???Electricity is very dangerous! It can kill you,??? warned Wilfred Clarke, Distribution Supervisor at BL&P and a member of its Safety Committee.

The school was the venue for the launch of BL&P???s safety kite flying posters, and Communications Coordinator, Sandra Reid, said it was part of her company???s Kite Flying Safety Programme.

She said they were designed to appeal to students of all ages, and BL&P was working with the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation to reach all schools.

???It is our safety gift to the children, so we want to remind them that as they fly their kites, they need to do it safely. We believe that it is never too early to start to develop a keen sense of safety.

???Kites on the lines are not only a safety issue. [They] have the potential to cause faults. When there is a fault, there can be an outage and an outage impacts the quality of the service that we are able to offer to our customers.

“It affects the reliability of our service to customers and that is something that we always seek to avoid. We want our customers to always know that [Barbados] Light and Power is there ???at the click of a switch??? and when we have something as small as a kite [causing problems] on the lines that is a major issue for us,??? Ms. Reid explained.

She stated although the message was being given to the students, it would reach parents and others in the community. ???It is very often that a child sees a parent doing something wrong and they can correct,??? she said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Media Resource Officer, Burkley Lowe, in lauding BL&P???s effort, noted that visual aids, such as the posters, were useful educational tools both in and out of the classroom.

He stressed that partnerships formed with businesses in the community helped to foster the knowledge required for national development. ???MRD has always sought to develop partnerships with entities in our society to help students, such as you, to develop into well-rounded, knowledgeable citizens.

“In this, our 70th year of providing training and educational resources, we are pleased to have partnered with BL&P in this project,??? Mr. Lowe said. He also urged the students to remember the tips offered via the posters, and utilise these when flying their kites.

The launch also saw the MRD encouraging students to conserve electricity at all times, through a song performed by Media Resource Officer, Sandra Boyce, called Save Electricity.

joy-ann.gill@barbados.gov.bb

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