The northern Croatian town of Varazdin has been declared a Safe Community, the title awarded by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to towns which actively work on accident prevention and injury control.
The WHO Safe Community certificate, which is awarded in cooperation with Sweden's Karolinska Institute, was signed on Sunday by Varazdin Mayor Ivan Cehok, Bo Henricson of the WHO, Mirjana Milankov of the Southeastern Europe Safe Community Network, and Ivica Skvorc, president of the Involvo association which implemented the Safe Community project in Varazdin.
The certificate was signed at a ceremony at the Varazdin Town Council, held on the occasion of the town's day and the day of its patron saint, St. Nicholas.
Varazdin is the first town in Croatia that has met, through different programmes for safety and prevention of injury and violence, the criteria for the awarding of this title, thus becoming the 224th Safe Community in the world.
The two-year project includes numerous activities and programmes which are designed to prevent phycological and physical injury, thus ensuring safety for all citizens regardless of gender and age, with emphasis on children and elderly people.
