DHAKA: On the occasion of UN Road Safety Week, Holcim Group is supporting a campaign called #SaveKidsLives in order to raise awareness about road safety for children.
As part of the Road Safety promotion campaign, Holcim Bangladesh has organized various community events engaging children to raise awareness about the importance of safe roads for kids.
The events include-- drawing competitions for children at various schools in the vicinity of Holcim facilities at Meghnaghat, Mongla and Dhaka.
The activations also include a week long briefing session for all Holcim Bangladesh and third party drivers focusing on the role they can play behind the wheels in order to ensure a safe and secure future for the children.
Holcim Bangladesh has also organized an awareness program and drawing competition at Mahmudabad Rajiuddin Ahmed Razu High School at Nilkuthi, Raipura of Narshingdi district for the children residing in the community.
The awareness program included a 30 minutes safety brief to the school children, educating them about the do’s and don’ts when crossing the highway on the way to school and to motivate them to encourage safe road crossing practices among their family members.
Safety team of Holcim Bangladesh, with the support of Centre for Injury Prevention and Research (CIPRB), informed the children about the precautions they should take while crossing roads and the importance of developing such culture among their family members.
After the drawing competition, students posed for photographs holding #SaveKidsLives posters highlighting their requirements from the authorities in terms of road safety.
It may be mentioned here that, Holcim Cement (Bangladesh) Limited is engaged in a road safety project at Nilkuthi, considered a major black spot on the N2 highway resulting in hundreds of accidents every year, to facilitate sustainable road safety development in the area. The Mahmudabad Rajiuddin Ahmed Razu High School is located 300 meters from the highway and has more than 1300 students aged between 6 and 17 years enrolled.
Most of these students have to cross the highway to commute to and from the school. Holcim in collaboration with CIPRB and Dutch based NGO called “Safe Crossings” has participated in road safety programs in the area to curb the number of accidents.
As part of the program, traffic calming mechanisms have been put in place in the area, which includes speed humps, pedestrian crossings sings, warnings signs, installation of bus bays and other initiatives.
Students at the Rajiuddin Ahmed Razu High School are also given regular safety briefings to raise awareness about safe road crossing.
Similar awareness activities have also been initiated addressing the road safety requirements of the local community. Leaflets on road safety are being distributed among the locals on a regular basis and they are frequently briefed on the do’s and don’ts of road safety.
Voluntary Record Keepers and Road Crossers have also been appointed to help keep track of the impact of the project and educate pedestrians on safe road crossing. It has been found that since the project work was initiated last November, number of road crashes in Nilkuthi has come down to 7 till March 2015, in comparison to 10 crashes in the corresponding period of the previous year.
Holcim Bangladesh, Vice President – Manufacturing, Mr. Kwang Se Chung said, “Holcim is not only concerned with its commercial operations; it is also meaningfully contributing towards developing the communities in which it operates.
Holcim attaches great importance to sustainable development. The company also believes in cultivating and nurturing safety culture in the communities with which it is involved.”
Safety is one of the core priorities of Holcim Group and the company ensures that safety standards are stringently followed in all its facilities and sites. Holcim Group also strives to make meaning contribution to ensure sustainable development in all the communities in which it operates.
BDST: 1512 HRS, May 5, 2015
AKA
