Emirates Driving Institute spearheads child and traffic initiative

Dubbed "Mama I am Home", the campaign involves the education of young school children about how to conduct themselves safely on the road. The campaign takes the form of a creatively designed "Children and Safety Tool Kit", of which 50,000 have been produced for distribution in various schools in Dubai.

The effort, conceived and supported by Dubai's premiere driving institute, is aimed at curbing the incidence of road accidents involving children. A grim statistic that has haunted parents of thousands of school-going children in Dubai confirmed that over 636 accidents happened in the city's road network last year. Of this number, 119 pedestrians were killed, of which about 56 (or 47 percent) were children under ten years of age.

"Mama I am Home" hopes to ease the worries of parents, and children themselves, by keeping kids informed about how to safely maneuver Dubai's busy roads and sidestreets, as well as what to do in case of accidents and emergencies. All these instructions are creatively embodied in a 20 minute -animated DVD movie, a 24 pages "Learn Road Safety with Edi the super car" book and an exercise booklet.

Amer Belhasa, Managing Director, Emirates Driving Institute said the campaign is part of the company's continuing commitment to promote safety in Dubai's roads. "

"As the leading driver education institution, we have a responsibility to teach drivers not only the skills they need to maneuver their vehicles on the road. It is our utmost concern that they imbibe the value of safety and courtesy on the road, especially towards children. Regretfully, many have ignored the responsibility that comes with the driving license. With this campaign, we are taking the proactive approach by helping children, and by extension their parents, conduct themselves safely on the road."

In addition,Mr. Belhasa said that by teaching children how to react to crisis and emergency situations, there is a greater chance of saving more lives from road accidents.

Our Own English High School, Dubai Modern High School, Wellington International school, Dubai American Academy, Al Khaleej National School, The Millenium School, The Indian High School, Arab Unity School, Delhi Private School, Al Mawakeb School are some of the schools that have already signed up to distribute the "Mama I am Home" road safety tool kit.

Administrators of the aforementioned schools have lauded the initiative, and expressed support not only in distributing the school kit, but integrating the educational stories contained in the kit through the DVD and the scrapbook, within classroom discussions.

Reaching out to children

"By using creatively designed instructional and interactive materials, our goal is to be able to communicate at the level that children understand. This way, we have better than usual chances of getting the message across," added Mr. Belhasa.

The Children's Book is a 24-page edutainment booklet for children containing a story and puzzles / games. The story revolves around Hamed and Shaikha, two school children who are taught by the Traffic Inspector how to conduct themselves in traffic situations. How they go about spreading these traffic messages to other children form the bulk of the remaining story. The story also introduces Edi, the super car who also conveys more messages to complement those conveyed by the Inspector.

The DVD is a fully animated 20-minute version of the above story. In the book, due to the limitations posed by the medium of publication and to focus on the purpose of the book, Edi was deglamourized. In the animated version however Edi is the chief protagonist who assumes superhero proportions with a mission to educate children on how to conduct themselves in a manner that keeps them safe from traffic accidents. Like in the book, in the DVD version, Hamed and Shaikha continue to be central characters but are made to play second fiddle to the charming Edi.

The 6-page exercise booklet is a scrapbook to keep children amused with games ,coloring and puzzles. Children are made to fill up the exercises in the book and mail / send them to EDI. Winning entries become eligible for prizes.

EDI has completely borne the costs of producing and launching the "Children and Traffic Safety Toolkits".