A road safety education town was set up in the yard of the Theoretical Lyceum “Petre Stefanuca” in Ialoveni. This is a special place in the open air for learning traffic rules for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. The town was created within a partnership between the Moldovan-Swiss Project REPEMOL, the Ialoveni mayor’s office, the Ialoveni District Council and the Theoretical Lyceum “Petre Stefanuca” with the financial assistance of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
Contacted by IPN, Natalia Ciubarov, coordinator of the campaign “Do you know how to avoid street dangers?” carried out within REPEMOL, said the town is a ground for practically studying traffic rules. It is outfitted with stoplights for pedestrians and cars, road signs and special road markings for pedestrians and tracks for cyclists so that the children can learn safely traffic rules. “The project aims to increase the awareness of children and parents or child supervisors of the traffic rules and safe behavior on the street,” stated Natalia Ciubarov.
The Lyceum’s principal Vera Balan has told IPN that the partnership with REPEMOL started last spring, when students of the institution were chosen as winners of the national contest “Security in road traffic means life”. Then, REPEMOL offered the winners a traffic education classroom equipped with road safety education posters and other materials needed for learning traffic rules. The road safety education town was inaugurated on October 18, with the support of the Swiss project. Besides the almost 900 students of the lyceum, the town can be attended by children from all the local education institutions, including those of preschool age. Grownups come to independently teach their children and tell them about road signs and how they should correctly cross the street.
Mayor of Ialoveni town Sergiu Armasu, ex-chief of the Traffic Police Division, stated for IPN that the creation of the road safety education town is a very important project for him and this will contribute to forming safe and responsible behavior in road traffic, in transport and while playing. “Each evening, we see the ground crowded. The children are enthusiastic. They see what crosswalks, stoplights, road signs mean and learn how to behave responsibly in traffic,” he stated.
