When you buy eggs from the store, how much care do you take when putting them in the car? You place the tray as carefully as possible, making sure not even a single one is damaged, doesn’t crack — but what about your children? When they get into the back seat, how much attention do you pay to the fact that they have their seat belts on?
This is a typical scenario Lesley Cully paints to parents when talking about car safety. Lesley Cully is the founder of Buckle Up In The Back, a non-profit organisation that is dedicated to raising awareness on seat belt safety.
Three years ago Lesley’s daughter was invited on a play date. When the family arrived to pick up her daughter, Lesley noticed they didn’t have a car seat and offered to give them hers.
“The family said ‘well, sure, we don’t use them – but you can give us yours,’” Lesley said. “That was the moment I thought — that’s it — that’s my daughter and her safety involved. So I thought, I can have an argument with parents I see every day or I can do something constructive, which is when I started this campaign.”
Lesley created a Facebook page and three years later it’s morphed into a campaign where she travels all over the city educating parents and children in nurseries, schools and colleges.
Last week, Lesley launched a new feature to Buckle Up In The Back campaign at Al Safa Private School in Dubai.
“It’s called Buckle Buddy,” Leslie said smiling. “It’s a different way of getting children to take responsibility for their own safety. They understand when you talk to them about safety. Buckle Buddy is a physical reminder that they should wear a seat belt and it spreads awareness within the car as well.”
Buckle Buddy is a soft toy with a velcro belt strapped around it that encourages children to wear their seat belt. The toy can also be attached to any seat belt. Each child can make their own sketch of the toy which is then brought to life with the help of CaN. Celine and Nora is a company that prints children’s art on to a variety of material — in this case, soft toys.
“We came across Buckle Up In The Back and we loved the idea right away,” Dima Kronfol said. She is the art director with an ad agency that supports non-profit organisations like Buckle Up In The Back.
“It was the kind of project that fit right into our philosophy that asks what is a problem out there that we can help resolve. We came across this organisation and we thought it was perfect to help raise awareness on child safety.”
“Companies like this is what I rely on,” Lesley said. “They’ve given me amazing support and it helps me further in raising awareness.”
Buckle Buddy is a very important part of this process because it focuses on educating children, who in turn educate their siblings and parents. After all, the statistics are chilling — the leading cause of death of children in the UAE is due to road traffic injuries.
“There’s been a lot of talk — I’d like to see more action,” Lesley said. “I’d like to see a seat belt law brought in that’s for all passengers — all ages. There still isn’t a law that requires passengers or children to be wearing a seat belt at the back in the car. I want the law introduced, I want the law enforced and I want the law educated.”
— Maryam Mirza is an intern at Gulf News
