All parents want to safeguard the wellbeing of their children and protect them from danger, but they often forget that kids also need protection in the car. "Taking just a few seconds before driving can save a child’s life".
The ideas
The students at Virgen De Loreto School have discussed many topics related to road safety, but they were most motivated to focus on one in particular: keeping children safe in the car. They had noticed that many parents don’t keep child safety measure in mind when driving and saw a variety of dangerous things while observing local traffic: small children in the passenger’s seat, without seatbelts, hanging half their bodies out of the window, and even sitting on their parent’s lap manning the steering wheel while the parent handled the speed and braking.
The students couldn’t bear to see it any longer! They decided to take action to get parents informed and help them change their behavior to keep their kids safe instead of putting them at risk.
The initiatives
The students developed a campaign called Restraining and Protecting Children in the Car. The primary objective was to get the fundamental information to all of the parents in the community. They developed a very effective campaign slogan, which used the voice of a child speaking to a parent: “You drive, think about me”. It was very effective in communicating to parents that they must be responsible when driving because their children are depending on them, and they are depending on them to take a few seconds to make sure their safety belts or car seats are properly fastened.
The initiative was first implemented in the Virgen de Loreto School, but later they decided to expand to cover the whole area of Socuellamos. The whole community was invited to attend an informative presentation, which was organized in collaboration with the police and the traffic department. The students further ensured everyone was made aware of the campaign messages by going out into the school parking and the center of the town to distribute informational flyers and speak personally with local parents. They even stopped cars that were driving with children to ask the parents to take part in short video recorded interviews.
The campaign captured lots of media attention from local and regional television and newspapers, the radio, and the websites of many schools in the region. They also managed their own social media campaign using networks like Facebook. It’s no surprise that such an important and well-done campaign earned such a lot of attention!
