Credit: UNICEF Cuba
Promoting The Right to Safety For Children and Youth in Cuba
Sherritt is committed to the health and safety of its employees and the communities around its operations. That is why we have partnered with UNICEF in support of Principle 4 of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles – ensuring the protection and safety of children in all of our business activities. As part of the partnership announced in 2018, over three years Sherritt has supported UNICEF’s Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention Programme to promote road safety among young people in Cuba.
Road safety is a priority for both the company and the country of Cuba, as unintentional injuries caused by road accidents are the leading cause of mortality among youth and adolescents.
The program builds on UNICEF’s extensive experience with road safety, which is a key component of its Country Programme (2014–2020), and has already shown successful results at the national level and in La Habana and Santiago de Cuba provinces. With Sherritt’s support, and in collaboration with Cuba’s Ministries of Health and Education, the National Road Safety Commission and local governments, the program supports the provinces of Matanzas and Holguin, including Moa and Cárdenas where Sherritt operates.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent interruption of the school year, along with restrictions of movement and confinement measures in Cuba, UNICEF was unable to carry out in-person activities that included the participation of children, adolescents and youth. Most of the planned actions were moved onto UNICEF’s digital platforms.
Some of the digital activities conducted in 2020 included:
- Social media information and education campaigns on road safety via UNICEF Cuba’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram platforms; and
- Dissemination of communications and educational materials on road safety to children.
As part of the System Strengthening and Online Engagement program, UNICEF Cuba focused on three key activities:
- Launch of a national radio program, “Consejería de Seguridad Vial” (Road Safety Counselling) on Radio Progreso and similar programming on local stations in each province;
- Hosting of virtual road safety courses to strengthen technical capacities of decision-makers; and
- Design and implementation of the National Strategic Plan for Child and Adolescent Road Safety.
This partnership builds on years of mutually beneficial collaboration between Sherritt and UNICEF in Cuba. Sherritt and UNICEF are proud to partner to support SDG 3.6 in Cuba, having reached over 165,000 children since 2018 through awareness sessions and simulated road environments to reduce deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents.