Costa Rica launches safe schools project

1 April 2014

Costa Rica has launched a new project to provide road safety for more than 4,000 school children. The safe schools project will design educational tools and safe infrastructure to protect the children on their journeys to and from school.

The project is supported by a number of UN Road Safety Collaboration partners including the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the non-profit Sesame Workshop, the FIA Foundation, the Road Safety Fund and the Costa Rican Road Safety Agency (COSEVI).

It will reach 4,500 students and their teachers in primary schools in the south part of San Jose, Paso Ancho, San Sebastian and Hatillo zones. A new education programme is being designed and critically the Government Ministry of Public Works and Transport, with funding from the IDB, will begin construction of safer road infrastructure.

The project is also receiving contributions from two NGOs - Amend, which has been working elsewhere with the FIA Foundation and Road Safety Fund on safe schools initiatives and Color My World (CMW), a youth-run non-profit organisation which recycles crayons, sending them around the globe to pre-schools, orphanages and refugee camps, donated crayons to accompany the children’s road safety books.