More security for the children

Not quite, because the two staff sergeants (OR-6) Yvonne N. and Dominik O. are in a classroom of Carravcane elementary school. Today they are accompanying the Liaison Monitoring Team 2.3 (LMT 2.3) and have a very special mission – road safety education for playschool children. The MP equipment listed above has only been set up today to attract the attention of the twenty little children. What is important today is the three-piece blackboard with traffic signs on it and the playing carpet with traffic signs and toy cars.

Major Frank M. and 1st Lieutenant Ralf H. explain: "From time to time LMT conducts such actions in schools of our AOR because this promotes trust and cooperation. Up to now, classes about tooth hygiene for children and first-aid training for teachers could be conducted in addition to the road safety education."

OR-6 Yvonne N. holds up the page-sized colored traffic signs and explains to the four to five year old children why these traffic signs are important for them. The language assistant Erdogan S. translates what the military police member explains to the children. The most important principles taught to the little audience is that they have to walk on that side of the road where the vehicles come towards them so that they can see the vehicles approaching, and that they should wear light colors in the darkness as to be seen better by the drivers.

At the beginning the little ones are still a bit shy and hardly answer the questions asked them. But hardly do Yvonne N. and Dominik O. kneel down on the playing carpet, the ice is broken. The children take the cars and move them along the printed streets. The playschool children who have not found space around the carpet yet, bend over the tables to see what goes on there on the carpet roads. The two staff sergeants and the language assistant intervene from time to time to apply the just explained traffic rules in play.

After it has been everyone's turn, the children are presented pictures of traffic situations. They are to decide whether the illustrated situation depicts right or wrong behavior. The three-piece blackboard is turned around and the children are asked to put up the pictures on the left (= right) or right (= wrong) side. As a reward the children a given soft toys for their classroom to play with and cuddle them during the breaks.

Finally, OR-6 Dominik O. puts on the high-visibility vest and takes the signaling disk in his hand. The children are to learn that a check and soldiers are nothing frightening but that they can also explain in a nice way how to best behave in traffic.

(Story by Captain Gerhard H. Fahn)