Michelin Foundation Conducts Road Safety Initiatives for Young Students in Cebu

By Gilbert Chao on July 25, 2016

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With the belief that starting them young is the best way to inculcate road safety awareness in the population, the Michelin Corporate Foundation conducted free road safety seminars and other safety activities for teens and school children in Cebu City on July 9 and 10, 2016.

Michelin brought its signature Fill Up with Air (FUWA) safety campaign to the Queen City of the South in July to create greater awareness about the role of tires, air pressure and a regular car safety check in road safety for the Visayas. On Saturday, July 9 Michelin activated the FUWA initiative at the S&R Membership Club in Mandaue, Cebu, offering motorists free tire checks to determine whether their cars had the right air pressure that is so crucial to road safety. Motorists could also avail of free consultations from Michelin tire experts about the right tires for their vehicles and other safety concerns. Student volunteers who were scholars of Enfants du Mekong Cebu-Visayas, helped to conduct tire air pressure checks at the FUWA.

On Sunday, July 10, Michelin Philippines and Michelin East Asia and Australia (Michelin E2A) joined hands with the Enfants du Mekong (EdM) Foundation Cebu Visayas group and The Little Bamboo Foundation (LBF) to teach teens and young children about safety and mobility. Over 500 teens and children of EdM and LBF attended the Sunday program and activities, joined by some of their families as well.

The group arranged for road safety seminars to be conducted by the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) for the young EdM scholars and LBF beneficiaries. The Michelin E2A team conducted a well-received storytelling session that starred Bibendum, the official Michelin mascot as Road Safety Hero. Crafting games, relay games, and obstacle courses that help demonstrate road safety lessons were also held in the afternoon.

Over 500 teens and children from EdM (Enfants du Mekong Cebu-Visayas group) and LBF (Little Bamboo Foundation) attended the Michelin Foundation at Cebu Family Park on Sunday, July 10.

“These activities are meant to pursue Michelin’s global goals of making its relationships with all of its stakeholders more meaningful, especially the communities near our facilities. Michelin cares a lot about employment, mobility and education,” said Michael Nunag, Michelin Chief Representative in the Philippines.

The Michelin Corporate Foundation was established in January 2014 to pursue the Foundation’s goals of bringing the world closer to a fair, sustained mobility. Its mission is to “help people move forward” and has financed projects that promote Sustainable Mobility, Environment Protection, Health and Sport, Education and the Community, and Heritage and the Arts. Project grants and road safety education campaigns for the youth in Michelin E2A started in 2015 and have been conducted in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, in collaboration with the EdM Foundation in the region.

The Enfants du Mekong Foundation is a French international NGO group that organizes welfare, scholarship and development programs for poor and marginalized youths in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, China and the Philippines. Established here in 1997, it has facilities and programs in Cebu, Visayas and Mindanao.

Little Bamboo Foundation meanwhile is a Filipino charity foundation with 400 beneficiaries made up of children from the slums of Cebu’s harbour. It provides scholarships and development programs, plus boarding houses for its beneficiaries.