1. Teach your children to never open the door by themselves when a visitor knocks.
2. Teach your children their full names, home address and phone number.
3. Teach your children who they should call for help in an emergency situation- explain to them what such situations are. Show them the numbers to call on your phone and how they can find the numbers and make the calls.
4. Teach your children to not be afraid to immediately leave and report to you when any adult, whether relatives, family friends, acquaintances, or strangers says or does something that makes them feel uncomfortable. Teach them that that they should never follow or leave with anyone who you haven’t expressly told them they can follow or leave with.
5. Child-proof your house. Ensure that all furnishings at home are safe for your children. Ensure that the toys you get for your children are suitable for their age in order to prevent choking hazards. Keep kitchen utensils, cleaning materials, insect repellents, medicines, and other household products out of their reach. Keep the products high up and locked up. By extension, before you let your child go to a day-care, a camp, or an unfamiliar house, first ensure that there are no dangerous furnishings, products, insects or pets around.
6. Keep children out of the Kitchen when boiling or frying food. I dare say, keep them out of the Kitchen at all times!
7. Teach your children about dangers on the road- teach them to stay away from motor vehicles and to not walk on the streets (especially never cross the road) without your supervision.
8. Closely supervise your children when you go outside the house with them. Don’t leave them to wander away while you chat with your friend.
9. Have a tested escape plan in the event of fire or criminal threat. Take the time to check your house for available exits and teach your children where to all gather in the event of any strange occurrence in the house, what they should do, and how they should conduct themselves (e.g. run, crawl, keep quiet). If you live in a storey-building, keep a ladder under your bed or in your wardrobe.
10. The greatest safety measure of all? Teach them, teach them, teach them how to worship and obey Allah so as to keep them safe from Hell! “O you who believe! Ward off yourselves and your families against a Fire (Hell) …” (Qur’an 66:6)

Check out www.africhijabi.com for more tips.