‘We want to empower students, not lecture them’
The Aqdar Drive Safely campaign will run all year in UAE universities in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education, and will include physical activities, lectures and meetings with students, Colonel Dr Ebrahim Al Dabal, general coordinator of Khalifa Empowerment Programme for Students (Aqdar), said.
“We do not want to lecture, or tell students what to do. We want to empower them and engage them in coming up with creative and innovative ideas that can be implemented. At Aqdar, we believe that students are influential.”
Thomas Edelmann, founder and managing director of Road Safety UAE, said reallife initiatives must be implemented. “It’s very crucial that we target all segments in society, but today we aim that youths create awareness for other youths like them on the dangers of using mobile phones while driving. We are keen on involving them to take part in activities and developing new holistic and intrinsic concepts that can be applied and implemented,” Edelmann said.
Samir Cherfan, managing director of Nissan Group, highlighted the importance of collaborating on the road safety initiative. “Our objective is to convince and stimulate youth to address their fellow peers and classmates to avoid using the phones while driving. We see this as a great opportunity to collaborate and work efficiently and effectively on bringing down the rate of fatalities on the roads,” he said.
“Students have four months to come up with their creative ideas and make their proposals, which will be later evaluated, selected and implemented by a team of experts.”