Lloyd's Register Foundation

“Around 90% of the five million injury-related deaths that occur every year happen in low and middle income countries,” says Katherine, Founder of safety and first-aid training organisation Safetyknot. “From road traffic collisions and burns, to cuts and falls, these injuries can ruin lives and families. Yet most could be prevented from happening in the first place if appropriate safety training was readily available.”

“I was working for many years in low and middle income countries across Asia,” she adds. “So many preventable injuries were happening everyday in plain sight. Whilst some organisations were trying to help, too often their resources were just transplanted from a high income country – they didn’t take into account local culture or context and therefore this safety support didn’t resonate with the communities who needed it.”

Katherine’s response was to establish Safetyknot in 2018, and since then the organisation has developed a range of training packs that include everything required to train people in safe practices. All training and resources are grounded in storytelling and events from real life, using contextually appropriate content that local people can understand and engage with – even those who cannot read or write. “Thanks to financial support from Lloyd’sRegister Foundation’s small grants programme, we’ve been able to distribute training packs to 29 organisations in Cambodia and Nepal, reaching an estimated 7,000 people,” says Katherine.

“The Foundation also invited me to speak at the Safer World Conference 2022, and that experience – together with my involvement with the Foundation’s Network to Engineer a Safer Tomorrow (NEST) scheme – has enabled me to meet and network with other Foundation grant holders and safety professionals. The more we work together, the safer the world will be.”

Katherine is now expanding Safetyknot’s reach into Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, and has also launched the Safetyknot App which provides practical safety tips. The app is free, available in Khmer, Nepali, Thai, Vietnamese and English, and includes an audio option so it’s accessible to all, regardless of literacy level. “It’s all about supporting the most vulnerable and keeping people safe,” she says.