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Entrepreneurial mum Mona Tadayyon has set off on a mission to make homes in Bahrain safe environments for young families and to cut out needless accidents, injuries and heartache.
She has set up a company, named after her twins, offering an in-home baby-proofing consultation service. It aims to provide parents peace of mind with a comprehensive room-by-room safety evaluation, a range of high-quality child safety products to choose from and experienced professional installers.
“Our motto is to protect what matters most to you,” explained Mona, 27, “and what is more important than your children?”
The idea for setting up T&S Child Safety came when she and her husband Jonathan Matchette, 31, who works for business services company Ernest and Young, started investigating ways to make their own two-storey home in Riffa Views safe for inquisitive 15-month-old twins, Talal and Sophia.
They searched the Bahraini market in the hope of finding effective and reliable child-proofing products but were faced with endless disappointment when many of their purchases broke within days.
Determined to create a safer environment for her babies, Mona began researching safety products online and read everything she could get her hands on about the subject.
She said: “My home was full of hazards that needed to be eliminated so I went to various retail stores looking for the right products, spent hours reading instructions on how to install them, researched different brands and alternative solutions and I thought ‘there must be an easier way to do this’.
“You read things in the papers every day that make you think. Recently there was a story about a child who ate too much toothpaste and died. It is things like this that can be so easily avoided.
“The number one thing we tell mothers is that they need to lock up toilets and put things out of reach of children. Sometimes common sense isn’t as common as you might think and you may need these small things pointed out to you which could make a big difference.
“We went through it ourselves and know how things can fall apart very easily within seconds – especially with twins, as you have two children running around in opposite directions.”
Mona, a former insurance professional, joined industry associations, consulted pediatricians, firemen, police officers and even connected with child-proofing professionals across the world.
She said: “Knowing I couldn’t be the only parent in Bahrain experiencing these difficulties my desire to create a safe environment for my own children expanded into an inspired and shared vision of providing families in Bahrain with the very best of baby proofing and home safety services available.
“In fact, injuries are the number one cause of death among children. Suffocation, drowning, poisoning, fires and falls are just some of the common causes of injury.
“From a statistical standpoint, there exists an overwhelming amount of evidence to suggest that baby proofing your home will significantly reduce the potential for a child incurring an injury.
“I also quickly realised that baby proofing can be an overwhelming and time-consuming project that often leads to wasted time and money, so decided there was room in the market for such a service to help families.”
According to the World Health Organisation, unintentional injuries claim the lives of around 830,000 children worldwide every year and countless millions sustain an injury serious enough to seek medical attention.
Mona said: “What happens is we come in and give a room-by-room consultation on how to make each room safer by providing tips, information and relevant products. Some can even match home décor, like her own stairgates.
“We also cover gardens, driveways and swimming pools. Taking the time to purchase the correct product for a potentially hazardous situation will save time and money and provide peace of mind. After a consultation we then schedule an installation date.
“For parents who are handy with their tools they can install the products themselves. Other items require a good knowledge of tools and wall construction to install them safely. Gates and cabinet latches and locks, for example, can be very challenging and time-consuming to get right.
“If in doubt, we recommend our professional installation to ensure our safety products are installed correctly. Children’s safety is not the place to take chances.”
Since its launch T&S Child Safety has proven so popular Mona is expanding the service to businesses as well such as day care centres, surgeries and other venues where children visit frequently.
She is also offering child safety awareness courses for housemaids and nannies.
Mona has successfully passed a Home Hazards Test, a benchmark examination for the professional childproofing industry. The HHT is based on a comprehensive curriculum that incorporates injury prevention information, trends and core childproofing concepts and techniques.
Her company is also a member of the International Association for Child Safety (IAFCS), a worldwide network of child safety professionals passionately committed to raising awareness of the industry and improving the safety of children.
Her consultation service for homes costs BD30 and for apartments it is BD20. Tadayyon also offers safety lessons for nannies for a charge of BD20. For more information visit www.tschildsafety.com and to book a consultation contact 33640040 or email mona@tschildsafety.com.
