Aster DM Healthcare, in partnership with Qatar National Traffic Safety Committee, General Directorate of Traffic and Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Interior (MoI) has launched a novel campaign to spread awareness on traffic safety.
The details of the campaign were announced at press conference on Wednesday attended by Lt Fahad Shareedah al-Abdullah, traffic awareness officer, General Directorate of Traffic, MoI, Lt Shaheen Rashid al-Atheeque, public relations officer, MoI, Dr. Sameer Moopan, CEO, Aster DM Healthcare, Qatar and Nikhil Joseph senior manager, Aster DM Healthcare, Qatar.
Named ‘Aster Safe Roads iPledge’, the campaign has legendary Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. As part of the campaign, people will have the opportunity to take a pledge to follow the traffic rules along with the cutout of the cricket star. The campaign, ‘iPledge’- which started on January 27 and runs until February 12 - targets children, college students, working professionals as well as general public in Qatar.
As a part of the campaign, Aster and MoI have organised activities including poster making competitions on road safety for schools, companies, associations and other organisations, awareness desk with flyers in malls and other public places, taking pledge through Aster Safe Roads sites, branded vehicles to create public awareness and distribution of campaign flyers on traffic signals.
The MoI is partnering with this event as part of its ‘One Second’ campaign to elevate road safety to an appropriate position and make road safety a priority in life as well as help others make better decisions.
Lt al-Abdullah said “Traffic Department urges the participation of all sectors of the community in the initiative to be aware of risks and dangers of carelessness on road use. This would be a model for other establishments and companies to follow and help spread the safety message to all walks of the communities.”
Lt al-Atheeque congratulated the Aster Group for its innovative initiative and extended all support.
Dr. Moopan, said, "The campaign, which is one of our CSR programmes, focuses on three main road safety messages - wearing seat belt, not using mobile phones while driving and using zebra lines for pedestrian crossing. It is also carried out in other GCC countries and India.”
“It aims to educate and create awareness, importance on road safety measures and garner support across all audiences. 135 Karwa taxis have been branded for the campaign for two weeks. We are really thankful to Ministry of Interior for their support for this campaign,” he added.
According to Nikhil Joseph, there will be poster making competitions for school students and adults. The students, divided into senior and junior categories, have to design a poster on road safety and submit it by February 18. Adults have two categories of poster designing, manual and digital. In addition there is a Facebook competition on ‘Spot a taxi with I pledge Competition’
The winners of the competition will be awarded cash prizes and attractive gifts, including the autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar. The iPledge campaign brochures are available in Arabic, English, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Nepalese, Sinhalese and Tamil. People can contact 50074148 or email padmakumar.n@dmhealthcare.com for more information on the competitions.