Using EASST’s new Road Safety Education Pack the National Automobile Club of Azerbaijan (AMAK) have visited 10 schools and pre-schools in Baku since October and introduced road safety learning to over 800 children.
The EASST Education Pack is a flexible resource for teaching road safety that can be translated and adapted to any local context. It can be used in a variety of settings with simple, fun, educational activities on how children and young people up to the age of 14 can stay safe on the roads. Translated for use in both Azerbaijani and Russian, AMAK worked with student-volunteers from two of Azerbaijan’s most prestigious universities, ADA University and Qafqaz University, to deliver road safety training to the school children and to guide and support teachers. Involving students in this way has been extremely valuable and ensures that road safety initiatives in the country are sustainable through empowering young people to get hands on experience and contribute to an important cause.
As part of the project, AMAK also worked with the Baku State Road Police who delivered interactive road safety sessions in each school. The Road Police distributed posters and bookmarks and held discussions around the key messages of road safety to both evaluate the children’s knowledge and awareness, and encourage them to think about good road behaviours – ensuring a safe journey to and from school. The children demonstrated exceptional enthusiasm and interest in the discussions and kept surprising both the Road Police and their own teachers with their questions and requests for recommendations, specifically related to tips on how to educate/advise their own driving parents on wearing seat-belts, speeding, and talking on the phone while driving!
Next, AMAK plan to hold an event targeted at the children’s parents, to broaden the impact of the children’s learning and to engage parents in the enforcement of this knowledge.
This project was delivered in partnership with the Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST), the FIA Foundation, the British Embassy in Baku, Ministry of Education and State Traffic Police Department of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
