KAMPOT Province, Cambodia – May 30, 2025

On their daily commutes to school, many children and youth are at risk. Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years globally. In Cambodia, students accounted for 12% of all road fatalities in 2022. Among them, nearly 60% of road fatalities affect secondary and high school students. This indicates a public health crisis that disproportionately affects young people the most.

To address this global challenge, as part of the SAFE STEPS – Road Safety program, with support from Prudence Foundation through Prudential Cambodia, the 30-Day Road Safety Campaign was launched at the Kampot Krong Cambodian Japanese Friendship High School. The program school has directly implemented these important campaigns by assigning school staff, teachers, and students to implement a number of activities such as training on safe motorcycle driving, attaching speeding stickers on a student’s motorcycle, playing (loud speakers) voice recordings and songs related to road safety at the school gate during arrival and dismissal and road safety awareness raising near the flag-poles every Monday and/or Saturday.

The school has also conducted in-class road safety education to students, Q&A and games, practicing crossing the road (as a pedestrian) and the give-way rule on simulation roads, posting road safety messages on Facebook pages (School-related including the principal, teachers, and students) and raising awareness to people on the street and in local communities and students at schools nearby.

Empowering youth for safer mobility

The objective of the launch day event was to raise awareness among students, teachers, parents and the broader community on four key risk factors: helmet safety, pedestrian safety, speeding, and safer driving. The event welcomed approximately 800 participants, including 600 students, 50 teachers, 100 parents, and 50 government stakeholders from provincial, district, and commune levels.

The day began with practical road safety training and motorcycle driving sessions conducted by Honda N.C.X, engaging both students and their parents. This hands-on experience aimed to instill essential skills and awareness about responsible road use.

Participants also viewed the Safe Steps Kids Public Service Announcements (PSAs), a powerful educational initiative produced by the Prudence Foundation to promote safety messages in an engaging and accessible way. To reinforce visual learning, banners and billboards displaying road safety messages were strategically placed throughout the school grounds.

Working together for a safer future

During the event, we distributed 100 helmets to students.  The helmet handover symbolized the commitment to reducing traffic-related injuries and fatalities among youth in Kampot province, Cambodia. Road safety training continued with a new group of students, followed by a street-based awareness campaign, bringing safety messages directly to the public.

“I fully support the implementation of the 30-day Road Safety Campaigns at target schools of the Safe Steps Road Safety Cambodia Program and strongly commend the good collaboration from Prudential Cambodia and AIP Foundation in building resilience in communities through the implementation of this program focusing on schools that have students who are most at risk in road crashes. I firmly believe the success of this program in contributing to preventing and reducing road crashes in Cambodia and will make students’ commutes to and from schools safer,” shared H.E Min Meanvy, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Secretary-General of the National Road Safety Committee.

In addition to AIP Foundation Cambodia program staff led by Mr. Pagna Kim, Cambodia Country Director at AIP Foundation, key representatives from Prudential Cambodia, Kampot provincial administration, the Department of Education, Youth and Sports and the Department of Public Works and target schools attended the launch day.

“At the heart of our company’s business principles, which focus on reducing life and financial risks among Cambodians, we believe that every child, who is a precious treasure of their family, deserves a safe journey to and from school,” said Mr. Bunthet Cham, Director- Agency Distribution at Prudential Cambodia. “Campaigns like this are vital in building a culture of road safety from a young age. By working together with schools, parents, and government partners, we are laying the groundwork for safer roads in Cambodia together.”

A regional program for road safety

The SAFE STEPS – Road Safety program in Cambodia, began in March 2022,  aims to mitigate risks on the road by providing students with safety equipment and road traffic education. The program encompasses a holistic approach in which education is key for safe road user behaviors, in addition to the helmet safety component of the program.

Under the Phase 2 of the program, which started in November 2024, a series of activities have been added by establishing a provincial technical working group at each target province and building their capacity on effective schools’ road safety interventions, especially on the use of the Star Rating for School (SR4S) tool to assess the safety of road infrastructure around the school zones for modification.

The SAFE STEPS – Road Safety program is part of the SAFE STEPS KIDS program, developed by the Prudence Foundation in partnership with Cartoon Network and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC). The program aims to equip millions of children across Asia and Africa with actionable information designed to save lives and create a future generation that is well-prepared and resilient to life-threatening situations. Core to the program is a series of animations being aired across Cartoon Network channels in Asia, reaching over 35 million households.