BANGKOK, Thailand – November 21, 2022

On their daily commute to get an education, many children are at risk.Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29 years globally. Bangkok, where project schools are located this year as part of the Safety Delivered program supported by the UPS Foundation, has the most crashes in the Bangkok Metropolitan area.This represents a public health crisis that disproportionately affects young people the most. It highlights the urgent need for preventive action.

During November – December, nearly 3000 primary students will be attending student trainings on road safety and mobility skills. These trainings will be facilitated by their teachers who attended a training back in October. The teachers are then better equipped to find the best way to adapt the method to students who are living with disabilities. The training focused on empathy and fun and interactive activities to ensure that the students can learn real-life skills from a real-life situation.

Once the students have completed the trainings and received their helmets, a series of extracurricular activities (ECA’s) will take place at the schools. During this time, the teachers lead their students and schools on competitions and fun learning activities related to helmet, road and mobility safety at the schools. The winning students also receive a scholarship.

This year of the Safety Delivered program (2021 – 2022), 50% of students who participate in the program are from underrepresented communities. These children often lack access to safe and sustainable commutes which means that their access to education is threatened.