Picture
Our next project is supposed to a list of road safety rules which will constitute as safe driving. This will be converted to oath so people can read and sign as oath.
We would love recommendations from the Board of Advisors for any changs or additions. The above picture is a rough sketch and would be designed as road sign which can be easily printed as a poster.

For those who are skeptical about oath, oaths have been used to voluntarily get complaint from people as after reading the oath , people sign they comply to "safe driving" rules and comply to their new identity.

Please feel free to comment as on August 12th it will be sent to METAphrenie & we would be EXCITED to work on first project with them.
 
As we are planning to release a series of graphic ads, it was very essential to get it done by the best design firm to make an impact and create awareness of the problem we are facing.

Today we visited METAphrenie (http://www.metaphrenie.com/) design studio in Dubai whose portfolio includes Adidas, Reebok, Jazeera to name a few.

"We have to get creative people in the region together to solve the problem (road safety)" Andrea Dionisio, creative director of METAphrenie told in the meeting today. Suraya Foundation is planning to partner with the reputed design studio

Alexandra Dionisio, Sales & Marketing director of METAphrenie understood the importance of having ads which connected with the audience and advised to focus on real life accounts of accident victims which can emotionally move the viewers than generic ads.

We had great 45 min discussion on the possibilities of working together for making a series of great graphic ads. We look forward to working with METAphrenie.
 
Had an EXCITING meeting with Media Ipsos today! The people at Media Ipsos are passionate people & were interested on our radio project"Are you reckless?"

Media Ipsos is one of the largest survey based research company in Middle East & the reason we visited them was to plan the radio ad & determine how we would go about MEASURING the effectiveness of our radio PSA.

We met up with the Ipos-ASI team and they got to know our campaign and then discussed about how to proceed to complete the project.

One shocking thing was they had NO government institutions interested in conducting an after market research for their PSA ads.

Measuring results is one of the main difference between our campaign and other road safety campaigns.Thanks to Media Ipsos for providing 40 minutes of their valuable time!
 
We have released our first project which is titled "What is Killing in Gulf?" on 19th July 2010, birthday of Suraya.

Infographics or information graphics is amalgamation of information and graphics making it easier for people to assimilate and understand the data.

More than 35 hours of work have been put researching and compiling this information and then putting right visuals. Mohd Shahnawaz led the data research team and graphics team was led by Sappho Rodriguez. Please view the infographic and provide us the feedback on facebook.
 
For our first project we are making infographics to depict the spread of road death epidemic. We have got some great volunteers helping with our first project  to spread road safety awareness project "What is Killing in Gulf?". We are excited to have a PR who is lobbying various radio stations to support us. You can also support us either by volunteering your time and talent or funding us (coming soon), either way please spread the word.
 
Here is a great video by RSA proving why money does not matter when it comes to doing creativity and complex functions. Volunteer and non-profit organizations can be a great place for the creative people to unleash their talents.
 
A road safety survey would be conducted very soon to help assess the safety of the u-turns on E11 and help close them. Nick Burton, Managing Director of I4Research and road safety analysis company based in UK and UAE has been very helpful in providing the logistics and the work. Suraya Foundation strives on prevention methods to save lives. Please support us by joining the foundation and helping spread road safety message amongst your loved ones.
 
Met up with the concerned authorities in RAK to campaign to close the u-turns in RAK on E11 road which had claimed many lives and injured many. Col Muradad , Head of Traffic police was very accommodating and helpful promising to close the u-turns. A traffic test thanks to I4Research would be still done to provide scientific tests that the u-turns pose danger to the public.
 
Just read the news here that the General Commander of Dubai Police, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim stating
"The Dubai traffic police last year managed to reduce traffic-related deaths to 12.8 per 100,000, from 17.8 in 2008 and 21 in 2007, he said. This year, the target is to reduce the number to 11.8." Didn't the population of UAE reduce in 2009 with the recession here? Did they achieve viable results?

Tamim further added traffic safety will be a priority for the police for the next 10 years, for which they will act under a four-pronged strategy.

i, Correcting common mistakes
ii,Road monitoring
iii, Vehicle monitoring
iv, Public road safety awareness

Wouldn't it be better to put Road safety awareness first? It would have been much easier to change the behaviors of drivers using time tested methods of prevention than deploying police to monitor the maniac drivers.

According to General Tamim, "Statistics have shown that improper driving habits cause 90 per cent of traffic accidents in Dubai, while faulty road engineering contributes to another three per cent"

I do not know the source of this stats but it is enough to create a sense of urgency to start tackling the issue by changing the attitude of the drivers.
 
Suraya Foundation has officially started to help protect you through prevention...
preventing through spreading messages . Help support the campaign by joining the facebook fanpage group.

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