Source: gulftoday.ae
Dubai First, a consumer finance firm, announced on Monday the participation of over 200 students in Abu Dhabi in its “Buckle-up” workshop aimed at raising awareness on road safety.
The focused workshops, which are part of the company’s ‘Little Steps for Safety’ corporate social responsibility programme, are supervised by Dubai First volunteers and conducted in a child-friendly environment in both Arabic and English. The programme has been successfully engraining a sense of consciousness through direct interactions with children since 2008 and is supported by Dubai First’s official road safety mascot ‘Sami’ the Safety Scout.
The four-hour workshop at Al Muna Primary School, Abu Dhabi, was conducted for students from grades 3 -6 and included interactive exercises that sought to educate them on the dangers of road accidents and the responsibility of wearing a seatbelt in the car. Towards the end of the workshop, the students were asked to undertake an oath to always wear a seatbelt and ensure that everyone else in the car also does so.
To help facilitate the learning process, the students were provided with an activity booklet on road safety designed specifically to teach them while having fun through the multiple activities.
Clare Thompson, year 3 teacher at Al Muna Primary School, said: “The children thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and the activity book was a fantastic way to reinforce the message of the importance of wearing a seatbelt. The teachers were able to use this as a tool to continue the learning in the classroom. Road safety is an important topic in Abu Dhabi and it is good to see organisations coming into schools to highlight the dangers and our responsibility.”
As the first full-fledged child road safety campaign to be launched in the UAE by a financial services company, ‘Little Steps for Safety’ is organised with the cooperation of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and Dubai Police.
