Mercedes-Benz Corporate Social Responsibility Committee concludes 'Road Safety for Children' campaign

The Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee, together with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Children's Grand Park, successfully held the 'Play the Safety' children's traffic safety campaign at the Four Seasons Garden in Seoul Children's Grand Park, a drawing competition and educational activity to spread a safe traffic culture.

The campaign, which is part of the Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee's child traffic safety social contribution programme 'MobileKids', was held on the 11th of this month and was attended by a total of 560 participants, including kindergarteners, elementary school students, parents, and members of the public, including Chairman of the Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee Matthias Weitl, Director of the Safety Improvement Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Manseok Ji, Director of the Seoul Children's Grand Park of the Seoul Facilities Corporation, Sung-il Son, and Kim Byung-ki, President of the Children and Future Foundation, a social welfare corporation.

The campaign consisted of a drawing contest and a children's traffic safety education experience to help children understand the importance of traffic safety and contribute to the prevention of school zone traffic accidents. More than 280 kindergarten and elementary school students from across the country participated in the drawing contest through a pre-application process, expressing themselves through their drawings on topics such as 'Traffic safety rules we should follow every day' and 'My life in action'. After judging through the Korean Art Association, 10 winners of the Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee Award and 30 winners of the Children and Future Foundation Award were selected.

In addition, the children who participated in the children's road safety education experience that was held in conjunction with the competition experienced first-hand the importance of road safety through programmes such as road safety quiz, promise tree, blind spot experience, and safety signs in our town.

"Mobile Kids is an initiative of the Mercedes-Benz Committee for Social Contribution, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, and is one of the flagship social contribution activities of Mercedes-Benz in Germany and 13 other countries around the world," said Matthias Weitl, Chairman of the Mercedes-Benz Committee for Social Contribution. "We hope that by thinking about and drawing their own traffic safety tips, children will be reminded of the traffic safety tips that they can put into practice themselves, and that by implementing them, they will contribute to reducing road accidents by walking and driving safely."

In addition, the Mercedes-Benz Committee for Social Contribution signed a business agreement with the Green Mothers' Association in 2022 to continue working together on campaigns to promote road safety and accident prevention for children. Since last year, the Mercedes-Benz Social Contribution Committee has also signed agreements with 12 other organisations, including the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Education and other private and civil society organisations, to raise awareness of child road safety.

Mercedes-Benz Mobile Kids is a road safety education programme for children that has reached more than two million children in 13 countries worldwide, including Germany, since its inception in 2001, and a total of more than 45,000 children have participated in the programme since its introduction in Korea in 2014.

Article roadtesting editorial (dhseo1208@gmail.com)

Photo Mercedes-Benz Korea