Imperial Logistics (‘Imperial’), a leading integrated market access and logistics provider, is proud to announce the re-opening of its road safety programme, Be safe. Be smart as schools reopen in South Africa. This exciting programme, which has been championing road safety education at high-school level – has been reimagined around current market conditions and, prior to schools closing, started driving health education as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Be safe. Be smart now provides impactful, easy-to-understand healthcare education and includes the installation of sanitiser stations and posters at the schools.
Says Mohammed Akoojee, Imperial Group CEO, “As a leading logistics and market access business providing essential goods and services, we felt it critical to influence better health and wellness management to one of the most vulnerable groups in our society - our children. This has meant supporting underprivileged schools with education and by providing access to sanitisation - both crucial to curbing the spread of this disease.”
“By utilising the footprint we already have in the schools through our road safety programme, we promote efficient hygiene measures and precautions in the school environment by encouraging and educating learners to wash and sanitise hands frequently, to use protective face masks at all times, avoid touching their eyes, mouth, or nose with unwashed hands and practicing cough and sneeze etiquette - as well as social distancing.”
The outreach includes education in the form of a simple but catchy song, and enables learners to understand and retain the fundamentals of these aspects in a memorable way, as well as being able to share this information back home with their family and friends.
“We have already reached 43 schools and interacted with 302 classes. With travel restrictions lifting we are now able to extend this reach beyond Gauteng to the Free State and KZN provinces – extending our help to teachers and learners as they navigate this new and challenging environment,” says Akoojee.
Imperial has distributed 1 075 litres of sanitiser, 430 dispenser units, 430 posters and visited 8 779 learners through the initiative to date – driving the power of an active, successful education campaign as rapidly as possible, and fundamentally creating a generation of safe and smart South Africans, empowered with Covid-19 relevant information.
“This is just the start,” enthuses Akoojee. “We are committed to continuing this programme as long as possible - to reaching and assisting as many young South Africans as possible – which is part of a much larger CSI mix where we aim to empower the youth to be safe and be smart in all areas of their lives – be that road, health and wellness, or education,” concludes Akoojee.
About Imperial
Imperial is an African and European focused provider of integrated market access and logistics solutions. With a focus on five key industries - healthcare, consumer, automotive, chemicals and industrial - we take our clients’ products to some of the fastest growing and most challenging markets in the world. Ranked among the top 30 global logistics providers and listed on the JSE in South Africa, we seek out and leverage new technology to deliver innovative, end-to-end solutions. Through our significant African footprint and international expertise, and with the support of our 25 000 people, Imperial’s purpose is to connect Africa and the world - and to improve people’s lives with access to quality products and services. See more at www.imperiallogistics.com
Additional Info
The Be safe. Be smart programme was initially a national road safety campaign that was launched by Imperial in October 2019, aiming to educate and positively influence South African scholars around responsible road behaviour. Since its launch, the initiative has reached 66 schools across 6 provinces and 58 931 students between the end of 2019 and first quarter of 2020. The programme is also recognised as part of the Life Orientation curriculum. The road safety component of the programme will resume as the country returns to ‘business as usual’.