PHNOM PENH (March 25, 2022)

In Cambodia 12% of all road crash fatalities are students and nearly 50% of them are secondary and high school students (RCVIS Annual Report 2019). Students are mostly affected because they are just learning how to ride and sometimes partake in at-risk behaviors such as not wearing helmets. To help reduce these fatalities, Prudential announced today its partnership with the nonprofit organization AIP Foundation to bring the legacy programSafe Stepsto Cambodia. The guest of honor at the ceremony was H.E Min Meanvy, Secretary of State, Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Secretary-General of the National Road Safety Committee.

Safe Stepsis an international education campaign founded through the collaboration of Prudence Foundation which is the charitable arm of Prudential, International Federation of the Red Cross, and National Geographic. The program which runs in several countries across Asia will be implemented in Cambodia by AIP Foundation starting March 25th, 2022 in Cambodia.

AIP Foundation was thoroughly selected as an implementation partner because of its years of road safety field experience and knowledge. Its proven integrative approach which includes, youth and parents’ education, teacher’s capacity building, high-quality helmets distribution, school zone modification, and community-driven awareness-raising have already produced excellent outcomes for theSafe Stepsprograms implemented in South-East Asia.

H.E. Min Meanvy, Secretary of State, Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Secretary-General of the National Road Safety Committee said: “I warmly welcome the launch of the Safe Steps Road Safety Program in our country. The implementation of this program at proposed program provinces is really on the right target, very important and most efficient. Activities of this program are suitable for the road crash situation in Cambodia that the Cambodian government is trying to prevent and reduce especially on the number of road crash deaths and injuries which have occurred alarmingly after the Covid-19 has been fully controlled and the country has been reopened on all sectors. The NRSC looks forward to working in collaboration with the teams at Prudential Cambodia and AIP Foundation to implement this program.”

Mirjam Sidik, CEO of AIP Foundation said: “Human-centric mobility puts us, the road users, directly at the heart of road infrastructure design and decision-making. We are proud to partner with Prudential Cambodia and the Prudence Foundation who share our vision of safer roads for all road users. This shared vision brings us together to save vulnerable lives across Cambodia. It is our responsibility to share road safety tools and knowledge to ensure sustainable behavior change and a future that serves both our youth and their communities.”

“As one of the largest insurers in the region, we see it as our responsibility to help society make roads safer, especially for young adults. Therefore, we launched the Safe Steps program, a pan-Asian initiative to reduce road accidents among youth. We have been running Safe Steps in Cambodia since 2014, our second year of operations in the Kingdom. It has been highly successful. After a short pause, we were eager to launch the program in Cambodia once again. After a long competitive process, we found such a partner; AIP Foundation. Today I am pleased to announce the launch of the Safe Steps program in Cambodia with them.”

The funds for theSafe Stepsprogram are provided by the Prudence Foundation, which aims to support communities in Asia and Africa in helping make roads safer and reducing fatalities.