1- The launching of LASIP

The Lebanese Association for Sports Injuries Prevention (LASIP) is a non-governmental organization specialized in sport safety promotion and in designing and implementing interventions for injury prevention in all kinds of Sports. It is based in Lebanon, and has many interventions in neighbouring countries. It was established, and officially registered in 2005 by many physicians, researchers and university students who believed that research and actions for safety promotion and injury prevention in Lebanon could be highly beneficial in orienting, monitoring and evaluating related awareness campaigns.

Since its establishment LASIP built sustainable and extensive research as well as cooperation with many municipalities and with many private organizations which are concerned with safety promotion such as the Lebanese institute for Children Rights (Child of Lebanon), Lebanese Specialized Childcare Syndicate, and more.

2- the main activity of the organization

The absence of safety measures and monitoring for some beaches and the lack of knowledge of safety measures are main factors contributing in many deaths. LASIP established the water safety committee to raise awareness in order to prevent water related injuries and deaths.

The lack of knowledge about water safety for the public led to the formation of a committee specialized in organizing continuous water safety awareness campaigns in Lebanon.
LASIP is an active member in the Safe Sports International which is a World Health Organization collaborating centre for Safe communities.

LASIP is working with many partners from both the public and private sectors in order to establish and implement a national scale policy for sports injury prevention (SIP) in Lebanon where such a policy was never set.

LASIP has organized more than 30 conferences about water safety promotion with more than two hundred participants from the water departments of the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese Internal Security forces. During the past years, LASIP has also given lectures and distributed more than fifty thousand brochures prepared and published by the association.

LASIP is a founding member of the “Arab Society for Violence and Injury Prevention” (ASVIP), the Arab chapter of the “International Society for Violence and Injury Prevention” (ISVIP), which was launched in July 2006 in an international conference in Beirut. The ASVIP will be a consortium of different Arab associations all working in all related fields of injury and violence prevention in national or international levels.
In the last 2 years, LASIP members did many conferences and media interventions about the following subjects: Rip Current, Slipping and Falling, Diving, Sun Burn Protection, Sudden Drop in Body Temperature, Scuba Diving, Sea Animal Stings and Bites, Motorized Sports and Preventive Recommendations for Families.

3- CAPACITY TO MANAGE AND IMPLEMENT ACTIONS
1- Water safety Program
After studies done by the committee for water safety in the Lebanese Association for Sports Injuries Prevention (LASIP) about the causes and consequences of maritime injuries, specifically drowning, it was noted that most injuries occur in unmonitored places. For this LASIP with partnership with many organizations sought through the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities to encourage all municipalities which are along the coast to establish free public beaches complying with safety standards and employing qualified lifeguards. Furthermore, LASIP is also committed to continue its awareness campaigns through the different media channels, educational institutions, the Lebanese Army, and the Internal Security Forces.

2- Management of Domestic swimming pools
In 2005, LASIP organized a Study about the management of domestic swimming pools. This report was published and had been discussed by many media institutions.
The report that resulted from the study aimed:
- To document and compare swimming pool inspection program between Lebanon and other selected countries.
- To identify barriers and issues faced by municipalities in the effective management of domestic pool compliance.
- To compare the attitudes of pool owners in Lebanon regarding fencing and inspections, and to gauge the exposure of children under five years to these pools.
- To identify models of best practice regarding the management of domestic swimming pools and the improvement of baseline compliance levels.
 
3- Partnership with Media
Television and radio, brochures, posters, magazines, and newspapers have a major role in sensitizing the general public about water safety. As such, LASIP contacted media institutions in Lebanon and conveyed to them its plan to raise the public’s awareness about tragedies and injuries that result from water related issues and the consequences of water related injuries.

LASIP members have participated in media interviews and conferences and in a number of programs to shed light on this critical matter. Over the years, more than 20 members of the organization participated in these media activities. At the same time, newspapers and news reports started to tackle issues of water safety, related injuries, and preventions means.

Currently, many LASIP members are frequent guests in most Arab speaking media institutions addressing the issue of safety promotion and injury prevention.  The organization has also published studies, recommendation as well as photos in many newspapers and magazines regarding all its public awareness campaigns about sport safety in Lebanon.

4- A Policy for Sports Injury Prevention in Lebanon
Upon the request of the Lebanese ministry of Sports and Youth, This policy was prepared and presented by LASIP in the Ninth World Conference about Safety Promotion that was organized by the World Health Organization and the Government of South Africa in Durban from the second till the fifth of April 2006. 
A/ Problem: There is a lack in the prevention of sports injuries in all the schools and sports clubs in Lebanon. Some specificity exists:
- Post-war period
- Lack of long term strategies in many fields
- The notion of sports injury prevention does not exist in the Lebanese society (rarely on an individual basis)
- Sports competence level is growing rapidly; Lebanon has won some regional titles especially in basketball.
B/ Objective: To establish on a national scale a policy for sports injury prevention (SIP) in Lebanon.
C/ Methods:
- Setting the policy: a sports medicine doctor along with a specialized team will set the policy and supervise its application.
- Promotion: widespread the knowledge of the basic principles of SIP by means of conferences, Medias, brochures…
- Collecting data from specific sources: emergency departments, insurance companies, sports clubs and schools
- Research: conduct research programs to evaluate the efficiency of our policy with the Scientific Research Foundation
- Focus the effort on widely performed sports: basket, volley, foot, tennis, athletics’, skiing , martial arts, cycling
- To create a sports medicine prevention department within universities
- Evaluate our results two years later

5- National Conferences on Public Safety in Lebanon – 6 to 8 July 2006:
Under the patronage of the Lebanese Prime minister, LASIP was one of the major organizers of the First National Conference for Public Safety, organized in the UNESCO Palace in Beirut, jointly with Lebanese Fire Prevention Committee (LFPC) and the Lebanese Association for Sports Injury Prevention (LASIP) from 6 to 8 July 2006. This conference was organized jointly with the World Health Organization (WHO) with a wide participation from both the private and public sector. A media campaign was launched throughout major media outlets in Lebanon, both local and via satellite.

6- Campaign for Sport Safety Awareness
Due to the tremendous lack in the prevention of sports injuries in all the schools and sports clubs in Lebanon, LASIP did around 70 lectures and interventions in the academic year 2005-2006 in many public and private schools and universities in order to face the challenge that the notion of sports injury prevention does not exist in the Lebanese society.