Training on road safety goes to Cebu

The Young Road Safety Champion (YRSC) program was launched in Cebu City through road safety education sessions for primary school students at Zapatera Elementary School.

A project of FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., and Safe Kids Philippines, YRSC enlists SafeKids and FedEx employee volunteers to train sixth-grade students from schools in the cities of Pasay, Quezon, Parañaque, Angeles  and Cebu to be road safety educators.

Students are then expected to engage their fourth-grade schoolmates in peer-to-peer sessions on safe and dangerous road user behaviors.

Rhicke Jennings, FedEx Express managing director for the Philippines and Indonesia, said the company was committed to give back to the communities it serves by keeping the roads safe for children who are especially vulnerable to traffic accidents.

He said the program aimed to improve road safety conditions for some 20 million kids who walk to school daily.

YRSC aims to reach 60,000 students in 50 partner schools.

The Cebu launching was capped by the awarding of the “Young Road Safety Champion of the Year” to the sixth-grader who conducted the most number of effective training sessions.

YRSC is part of Walk this Way, the pedestrian advocacy program launched in the Philippines by FedEx and Safe Kids in 2004.