For the period of 3 months starting from October 15, 2016  of Azerbaijan National Automobile Club (AMAK), in partnership with Eastern Alliance for Safe and Sustainable Transport (EASST), the FIA Foundation, the British Embassy in Baku, Ministry of Education and State Traffic Police Department of the Republic of Azerbaijan has been implementing its pilot project on road safety education at 5 public schools ( # 31, 32, 46, 164 and 258) and 5 private kindergartens in Baku with a total of 800 children. Throughout the education process children were involved in a number of road safety-related activities — public campaigns, educational sessions, Q&A sessions with involvement of State Road Police representative and competitions among schools on different road safety topics.

As a final stage of the project, AMAK organized “Saving Kids’ Lives”, an event dedicated to awarding to the winners in each competition, motivated and enthusiastic teachers who were actively involved in the education process and contributed to the overall project, as well as students of ADA and Qafqaz universities as volunteering Road Safety trainers who were a vital and very successful part of the project. AMAK also invited children’s parents to the event with the aim of broadening the impact of the knowledge conveyed to children, engage and keep parents responsible in enforcement of this knowledge in order to increase the effectiveness and the impact of the education and ensure sustainability. AMAK was also honored to host directors and deputy directors of each school, director of the Center for Extracurricular Activities # 46, director of Baku Taxi Services LLC, representatives of Ministry of Health, management of kindergartens and many other guests whodevoted their precious time to share the Club’s successes at the event.

The event started with welcome speech by AMAK’s Road Safety Projects and Trainings Manager and a brief on AMAK’s road safety education at schools in Baku and its sustainability. During the brief, event participants received information on key activities implemented throughout the project, number of involved children, teachers, students and other project related statistics.

The speech was accompanied by Mr. Stephen McCormick, Deputy Head of Mission of the British Embassy in Baku who expressed the Embassy’s aim in supporting road safety initiatives. Ms. Farida Suleymanova, Head of Division for Creativity of the Center for Extracurricular Activities # 46 and Major Isa Deistani, Inspector of the Public Relations Division of the State Traffic Police Department of the Republic of Azerbaijan supporting this speech by delivering a strong message to parents on the importance of their active engagement in the road safety education and awareness process. The event was summarized with a video trail on AMAK Road Safety Education Project at schools and certificates and gifts awarding ceremony to children, teachers and volunteer students and a closing speech on the importance of such road safety initiatives and government support by Vusal Rajabli, President of AMAK.

To note, AMAK was founded in 1999 and became an FIA member club in 2015. One of the main goals of AMAK is to actively promote road safety through various research projects, training programs, and educational projects at schools in order to raise awareness among drivers and pedestrians and to improve road safety culture in Azerbaijan.

As a club, AMAK provides its members roadside assistance services, exclusive bonus and discount programs, legal and technical advice on mobility. AMAK is contributing to the development of automobile tourism and club culture in Azerbaijan.