Hyundai drives FIFA Ticket Fund initiative through educational activity
Initiative set to encourage road safety and compliance
The FIFA Ticket Fund initiative permitted Hyundai – through their sponsorship - to not only allow underprivileged children the ability to attend a live soccer game, but also to address the shortage in learning infrastructure and effectively educate children, learners and the community around road safety practices.
In South Africa the reality exists where there are over 3.5 million school children who have little or no use of a desk in their classroom environment. Hyundai South Africa, through Lapdesk, a company providing ergonomically designed lapdesks that fit comfortably on children’s laps, have approached underprivileged/disadvantaged communities within a 200km radius of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ venues - in six provinces - to undertake a ticket distribution social investment campaign in the form of a learning experience.
To this end, learners were divided into teams and, guided by their teachers, designed or coloured-in the supplied campaign competition poster along with a written motivational paragraph – incorporating the Official Slogan of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™; ‘KE NAKO. Celebrate Africa’s Humanity™’. “The team element to this campaign was vital as it not only encourages a team spirit, but also aligns to that of a football game. Through such a campaign, core educational values of creativity and literacy are encouraged,” says Alan Ross, CEO of Hyundai South Africa.
Hyundai South Africa, selected the winning schools based on the above criteria and today marked the first of many official handover ceremonies, whereby the schools received the tickets to selected FIFA World Cup matches – which includes collection, supervision and drop-off of the children - but more importantly, Hyundai has sponsored each school child a Lapdesk, branded with safety graphics to encourage awareness as to local road safety rules and compliance requirements. “This initiative delivers the Hyundai road safety message to parents/guardians and siblings linked to the schools involved, and research has shown that each Lapdesk is viewed by a minimum of 25 community members each day – further driving the safety message,” adds Ross.
“As a committed Official FIFA Partner, our endeavour is to ensure that the experience is viewed as one that adds value to the learners’ life and educational practice. There is no doubt that this is Africa’s World Cup and our intent as the local ambassador, is to support this premise through well placed initiatives,” concludes Mr Ross.