LAFARGE STANDS FOR PROMOTING ROAD SAFETY IN EGYPT

[Cairo - Egypt] Lafarge, the world leader in building materials with top ranking positions in all of its businesses: Cement, Aggregate and Concrete, announced its comprehensive strategy for boosting social development and participation in Egypt.

 

The first element of this strategy came in the form of signing a cooperation agreement with the Egyptian Association for Roads Traffic Victims (EARTV) held under the umbrella of the Ministry of Education. The protocol helped to set up a project aimed at raising road safety awareness among students of elementary schools in Egypt.

 

In its pilot phase, the project is designed to qualify 300 teachers for raising the awareness of 3,000 students at twelve schools in Cairo and Alexandria. To help achieve this objective, Lafarge Egypt in cooperation with EARTV, have organized a number of symposiums and workshops and granted schools educational materials specially designed to educate children on traffic rules, ethics and regulations.

 

"This initiative brings clear evidence on the importance of cooperation and partnership between private and public sectors, which can have very positive impact on better addressing issues of the Egyptian society, especially in the area of road safety", commented Mr. Mahmoud Al-Sherbini, first undersecretary of the Ministry of Education.  According to Al-Sherbini, "Companies must join forces with the government, and extend a helping hand through implementing social responsibility programs."  Al-Sherbini emphasized that Lafarge initiative for raising road safety awareness among different sectors of Egyptian society goes in line with the national objectives of the Egyptian government in this respect."

 

Erdogan Pekenc, Chief Executive Officer, Lafarge Egypt, also voiced his enthusiasm and full support for the campaign saying "Lafarge is very delighted to work in association with Ministry of Education and Egyptian Association for Road Victims, to make safer roads in Egypt.  Health & safety is Lafarge's number one priority and we are committed towards creating healthy and safe environment for our employees, contractors and other stakeholders.  We hope that such an effective campaign will deliver very important road safety message to parents, teachers and children".  

 

For its part, Sami Mokhtar, board chairman of EARTV said "we are proud of our cooperation with Lafarge Egypt.  The project comes to emphasize the role of non- governmental organization in addressing key community issues.  We hope that we can see future initiatives aiming at reducing the number of victims of road accidents."

 

Lafarge Egypt stood for this awareness raising responsibility, following the statistics of road losses reaching 7,000 victims in 2010; a 7.9% increase over the year before. In 2011 the company launched several road safety campaigns, including the famous cartoon episodes "Essam and the Lantern", in addition to a dedicated website designed to create awareness on road safety among the youth, www.mysaferoad.com 

    

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Notes to editors

Lafarge is the world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in all of its businesses: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete and Gypsum. With 76,000 employees in 78 countries, Lafarge posted sales of Euros 16.2 billion in 2010.

 

Lafarge was ranked 6th in the "Carbon Disclosure Project" and entered the global "Dow Jones Sustainability Index" in 2010 in recognition of its sustainable development actions. With the world's leading building materials research facility, Lafarge places innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and architectural creativity.  Additional information is available on the web site at www.lafarge.com