Insurance company Prudential and the Asian Injury Prevention Foundation together with the National Traffic Safety Committee, local partners in Dak Lak Province and the Ministry of Education and Training have launched the "SAFE STEPS Kids Road Safety" campaign at the province’s Nguyen Viet Xuan Primary School.

The campaign will be rolled out in 2020-21 in Bac Giang and Dak Lak provinces with four main components, comprehensive road safety education for students, providing quality crash helmets to students, school zone modification to improve road safety conditions, and running communication campaigns to raise public awareness.

It will directly benefit 2,700 elementary students and 4,200 parents and more than 100 teachers. Through an extensive communications campaign which will be rolled out nation-wide, more than a million people can get to hear easy-to-understand educational messages on road safety.

Traffic accidents have a significant impact on the lives of children, who account for around a quarter of all deaths. In fact, accidents are the number two cause of death of children aged four to 15.

Phuong Tien Minh, CEO of Prudential Vietnam, said: “Road safety is everyone’s responsibility. The ‘SAFE STEPS Kids Road Safety’ campaign is just one of the many meaningful activities we have been implementing with love and care to bring a better future for children. We also hope the community will share the responsibility and raise awareness of road safety to minimise … accidents.”

The campaign is a part of the SAFE STEPS Kids programme developed by the Prudence Foundation in partnership with Cartoon Network and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent.

The programme aims to equip millions of children across Asia with actionable information designed to save lives in emergencies and disasters. — VNS