AXA Group pushes school safety with Mobile Safety Classroom program

Children are key to building a country's future prosperity. That is why AXA Group, one of the world's largest insurance companies by revenue, said it is continuing to deploy more resources to upgrade its safety education programs in Chinese primary schools this year.

The French company joined hands with China Children and Teenagers' Fund again to upgrade safety education - the Mobile Safety Classroom program with 7 million yuan ($1.06 million) of donations this year.

AXA began to partner with CCTF to jointly create this program with the mission of improving road safety for children in 2015.

Centering on protecting the family's safety, the 2016 Mobile Safety Classroom will continue to pass on essential knowledge about road safety. Meanwhile, financial education and home safety will be added in the new mobile safety classroom, to set off the journey with richer content and more diversified experiences.

Hans Wagner, chief actuary officer of Shanghai-based ICBC-AXA Life, a joint venture formed by AXA and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said as an insurance company, AXA has been always taking "protection" as its mission, and persistently practicing it with concrete actions.

"Our action of protection is not something done on the spur of the moment or that can be done at one stroke. It requires continuous and long-term efforts. From children to families, AXA wants to contribute more on 'building a safer society'," said Wagner.

The journey of the Mobile Safety Classroom is scheduled from June through October this year, CCTF-AXA China Mobile Safety Classroom will not only get into top-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but it will also reach Chengdu, a second-tier city in August, to benefit more areas with home safety education.

Wagner said the ungraded program this year is an extension of textbooks. Whether it is road safety, home safety or family financial education, what the mobile safety classroom wants to pass on is the crucial knowledge that cannot be learned from ordinary classrooms.

The program supported by AXA and CCTF, took a five-month education journey in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to hit 43 spots in total last year, including schools, communities, parks and children's activity centers, attracting more than 120,000 children and parents. Over 80,000 people joined the team taking a pledge of "No Belt, No Drive".

"In comparison with last year, the program this year has comprehensively upgraded with expansion in its content and the scope of the journey," said Zhu Xisheng, Secretary-general of CCTF.

"While bringing children a lively experience classroom, we also want to provide safety protection for their families, which are the most basic and also the most important unit of the society," Zhu said.

Supported by more than 160,000 employees, the Paris-headquartered AXA provides services to more than 103 million private and corporate clients in 59 countries and regions. It has three lines of expertise: property and casualty, life and savings, and asset management.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn