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A YOUNG mum's life-saving campaign to get children buckled-up when they travel by car has excited a great deal of interest since it appeared in GulfWeekly with one company promising to print thousands of her pamphlets.
We reported how Finnish mother-of-two Aila Asu, 39, from Saar, was so concerned at seeing children riding unrestrained in their parents' cars that the former graphic designer created a pamphlet to educate parents of the dangers.
Using genuine examples such as that of a baby held on his mother's lap being killed when the car was hit at slow speed and he was flung onto the dashboard, Aila set out to convince parents that children should always be safely restrained either in special baby or child seats or with the use of a booster cushion so they can use adult seat belts.
Aila was keen to find a sponsor for the programme and companies to help get it distributed throughout the kingdom at places such as schools, nurseries and car showrooms.
Now APM Terminals Bahrain, which operates container handling at Mina Salman and will run a container terminal at the new port, has stepped in with an offer to print thousands of the pamphlets in English and Arabic.
The company will also help with kingdom-wide distribution and has offered to raffle off 10 car seats in a free draw entered with vouchers printed in the pamphlet.
Iain Rawlinson, general manager sales and marketing, said: "We have seen with concern that so many children in this country travel in cars without any restraint so when we saw that Aila was putting together this leaflet it seemed a wonderful opportunity to get involved and hopefully make a difference.
"If we can help save one child from death or injury it will certainly have been worth it."
Aila said: "I can't thank GulfWeekly enough, there has been so much interest since the story appeared. I was contacted by APM, they are really hot on health and safety and want to help distribute the pamphlets and are even hoping to approach the island's electricity company to get them inserted along with electricity bills.
"They didn't even care about getting the company's logo included; they just wanted to help and said this was something they had been thinking about for a long time."
Aila became passionate about the issue of child safety after her first son Lauri was born at the American Mission Hospital three years ago.
As she and husband Antti, also 39, prepared to take the newborn home they met a Bahraini family getting ready to leave with their own tiny baby.
Aila realised the new parents were about to travel by car without a baby seat for their youngster and asked why.
She was shocked to hear the couple had been told baby seats were dangerous for children and vowed to help educate other parents.
She said: "I was shocked that they had been told baby seats were dangerous when in fact the reverse is true. We explained that it's just the opposite and showed them how the seat worked and they were impressed."
After giving birth to her second son Joel 18-months ago she set to work designing the pamphlet which offers useful advice on fitting and use of car seats as well examples of what can happen when they are not used.
Aila is also in talks with various other companies about getting the pamphlets printed and distributed and is still keen to hear from anyone who would like to help.
She can be contacted on 39102735 or by email on aila.asu@luukku.com.
