To afford the challenge, Automobile Club Albania (ACA) was focused on a key issue – education of children. A project intitled EDUCATE CHILDREN TO EDUCATE ADULTS, was prepared with a total foreseen cost of 91,350 EUR. After application, ACA received a grant of 30.000 EUR from FIA Road Safety Grant Programme. Other partners in Albania, namely UPS, FIAT-JEEP, SIVIG and ATEX offered their financial support for the rest of the amount. A series of 26 cartoon films, named “Green Light”, was purchased from MOTION PICTURE S.A., Barcelona. With the aid of the agency MEDIA UNION, contracts were signed with National TV DIGITALB (for broadcasting), IDRA MEDIA (for broadcast monitoring), TELEMETRIX (for audience evaluation). The series were translated in Albanian language and audio has been prepared (dubbing and voice over, player and audio processing for post production). It has been proceeded with series intro&after template, video and audio production, with branding and requested message.
A strong campaign has been implemented during 2015, including:
1)Broadcasting of “Green Light” series divided in four phases (all over the year). 208 broadcasting of “Green Light” series, 175 general promotional spots and 434 series promotional spots have been transmitted so far. Regarding the audience of the “Green Light” series during the 4 phases of broadcasting, from a sample of 282,832 families, 78% have watched the series during the 1st phase; there was a slight decrease of 70% during the 2nd phase (beginning of vacation season), followed by an increase of 82% and 84% during the 3rd and 4th phase (beginning of the new school year).
2)Production of 5,000 booklets and 1,000 DVD of “Green Light” series to support the campaign . Most of them have been delivered to the Ministry of Education and Sport, in order to start organizing the broadcasting of the series in the primary schools.
3)An agreement was reached with the Ministry of Education and Sport, to introduce the “Green Light” series in the education process of 50 public schools in Tirana and 30 public schools in Durrës city, since this school year. It has been done exceptionally. In collaboration with ACA staff, an instruction has been prepared containing suggestions for the teachers how to use these films in the education process with the pupils of 1st to 5th classes. There is a lack of logistic for the other schools but the Ministry of Education is commited to extand this process to the primary schools, all over the country, in a near future.
4)Previously the series have been distributed also to 50 other private schools in the same districts, choosen by ACA to participate at ETEC (European Traffic Education Contest).
5)ACA has chosen 1 pilot kindergarten and 1 pilot primary school to measure the output of the project. There, different test have been done before and after the campaign (see item “Evaluation of the activities”).
good practice
Good practice submission
Good practice submission
Attachments
What problem did you address/are you addressing?
Due to its turbulent recent history, Albania presents a special case in Europe in terms of road safety. Until 1992, private cars were strictly prohibited. It was not an environmental worry but a Machiavellian calculation of the dictatorial regime (the most ferocious dictatorship in Eastern Europe): with banning of private cars, people were deprived from a significant dimension of freedom. This history has created a wrong tradition still in power: pedestrians of all ages, instinctively, enter the roads and highways, challenging the road safety rules and putting their lives in danger. It is very difficult to change a tradition.The project developed a program to improve road user behaviour. This is crucial for the country. A strong education campaign for children 5-12 years old, was carried on. It was focused on the broadcasting on a National TV, during a 1 year period, of a series of 26 educational animated cartoons, called “Green Light”. The broadcasting and the audience were well evaluated. An agreement was reached with the Ministry of Education to use the “Green Light” series in 80 public schools since this school year. The process will be extended to the other schools on a national level.
List the actions you carried/are carrying out
Date
Thursday, 1 January, 2015 to Monday, 5 December, 2016
Name of action
How did you disseminate/are you disseminating results or how did you promote/are you promoting your initiative?
Articles have been published on the daily newspapers PANORAMA and SHQIP, on the weekly magazine MONITOR and on the bimonthly magazine AUTOCLUB. Screenshots have been displayed on ACA website and magazine MONITOR website. 5.000 booklets and 1.000 CD-ROM of the “Green Light” film have been produced so far.
How did you evaluate/are you evaluating the success of your action?
The 1st exam realized in the pilot kindergarten and pilot school before the launch of the broadcasting campaign has shown a very poor level of knowledge on road safety (in average, respectively 14 from 100 points and 44 from 100 points). The second exam realized at the end of the campaign has shown a very significant increase of the level of knowledge (in average, respectively 84 from 100 and 92 from 100 points). In fact, here ACA staff has done supplementary work, out of the normal TV broadcasting, to assist teachers for road safety education of kids and pupils.