Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: There's no hiding from the statistics - young drivers in KSA are more likely to have an accident in their first year of driving than at any other time.
Mindful of this, Nissan is today announcing it is sponsoring 2,500 scholarships in Saudi Arabia at the Safra Defensive Driving Academy (SDDA) based at Jeddah Raceway. Additionally, Nissan is providing eight examples of its popular front-wheel drive Altima sedan as the official vehicle of the Academy in which the participants will learn safe driving and road safety techniques during the 'behind the wheel' portion of the training course.
"Nissan is proud to make a significant contribution towards the adoption of safe driving behaviors from an early age" commented Monal Zeidan, General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Communications, Nissan Middle East FZE. "Nissan treats corporate social responsibility programs such as this with highest importance, just as it does in designing passive and active safety technologies into every car it builds" he concluded.
The initial 2,500 participants sponsored to attend the Academy by Nissan will be sourced from local high schools, colleges and universities. Nissan's sponsorship of these participants represents a substantial financial contribution that highlights the company's commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) effort.
Instructor training was conducted to the standards of the National Defensive Driving Academy based in Arizona, USA. At time of full operation, the Academy will have eight full-time instructors with a further four available part-time. A 'soft launch' phase saw the Academy run more than 12 pilot courses with over 150 trial participants taking the course while using their feedback to refine the program.
The Academy will enjoy the generous support of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce as a supporting partner. The Jeddah Board for Social Responsibility (a JCCI entity), has accepted the SDDA program as an approved CSR program. The SDDA has been accepted as an affiliate member of RoSPA, UK (The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) as well as becoming an affiliate member of The Arab Road Safety Organization (AROSO) based in Tunis.
The opening took place at SAFRA's facility in Jeddah on 9th November and was held under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, Governor of Makkah Region, and was inaugurated on his behalf by HRH Prince Mishaal bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah.
-Ends-
Hakam Kherallah
Senior Manager
Corporate Communications Department
Nissan Middle East FZE
Tel: +971 4 881 7500
Fax: +971 4 881 9747
Vivian Hawat
TBWA/RAAD Middle East
Tel: + 971 4 425 8800 ext. 8976
E-mail: vivian.hawat@tbwaraad.com
© Press Release 2008
