Together, the road to school in safety

Present in seven Southeast Asian countries, the NGO Children of the Mekong is a hand held out to children in hardship. Its mission is to help them reintegrate society by giving them access to school or by finding work for teenage dropouts. The association is engaged on every front: sponsoring children, building infrastructure (bridges, schools, foster homes), managing 10 learning centres and 88 foster homes, developing employment via micro-entrepreneurship. Because roads are, in these countries, often dangerous, or mobility, due to its cost, hampers education, the association rolled out a programme which has been implemented  in Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, and Laos. Christened “Safe Mobility”, it is aimed at making access to school safer, facilitating mobility and school enrolment, and train pupils in road safety.

The programme includes the purchase of bicycles and helmets for the children, motorcycles and helmets for the people accompanying them, students’ mobility in school centres (centres’ transport fares, employment forums, career guidance forums, etc.), as well as a van to help transport younger children. Faithful to its engagement in favour of road safety, the Michelin Corporate Foundation has chosen to support this project by becoming a long-term partner. Apart from a financial contribution, it is involved on the field through road safety training given by Michelin Asia employees.