Give a little, Get back a lot: Successful fundraising for road safety

For the Cambodian Red Cross Road Safety Project, “Give a little, get back a lot”, is more than just words. The Cambodia Red Cross turned this saying into a reality – one that resulted in more than 81,000 USD in contributions for road safety.

It all began a year ago. That’s when the Cambodia Red Cross – with the support of the Global Road Safety Partnership through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ Cambodia Country Office – hosted a workshop for private-sector partners by investing 2,123 USD. The interest garnered has resulted in support for road safety both literally and financially.

The Australia and New Zealand Royal Bank, a leading bank in Cambodia, sent a total of 18 staff to join the Cambodia Red Cross’ Youth Road Safety Guides once a month from July until December 2010. The bank has also collaborated with the Cambodian Red Cross to post road safety pictures and messaging related to speeding on 125 of their cash machines. The Dumex Company  which manufactures infant and child nutritional productions, also requested technical support from the Cambodia Red Cross to organize and facilitate a one-day road safety training for their staff focused on traffic law, helmet wearing and drink driving.

But these successful endeavours did not grow overnight. “It helped that we worked closely with our private-sector partners before the workshop,” explained Kim Pagna, Road Safety Project Manager for the Cambodia Red Cross. “We built good relationships to work from, so our partners already had a solid background on the importance of road safety.”

At the end of May 2011, the Cambodia Red Cross will be hosting a follow-up workshop for investors, in order to discuss the progress made for road safety and ways to continue fostering their commitments.