Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) spearheads another batch of “Teen Smart” road safety workshops for senior high school students. Once more, this demonstrates Honda’s commitment to “Safety for Everyone” beyond products and services, but also in initiatives with local communities where Honda operates.

HCPI has been conducting seminar-workshops on road safety for teenagers for years now. This leg of the program kicked off in March 2019 in partnership with the Sta. Rosa Department of Education, Sta. Rosa local government, fellow Honda companies, Honda Philippines, Inc. and the Honda Safety Driving Center. Earlier in 2004, Teen Smart’s forerunner, the YES Move or Youth for Environment and Safety Movement, with the Land Transportation Office, also promoted road safety through seminar workshops and fun competition.

Honda sustained the activity by integrating it with a broader national program in 2017, the One Honda Road Safety (1HRS) that aims to realize Road Safety for Our Family. Honda takes to heart the impact of its initiatives to the youth, and so the format gets some fine tuning from time to time to be more interactive and interesting to young audiences, and at the same time relevant, updated with changes in laws pertaining to road safety. Reaching many schools even beyond Sta. Rosa, thousands of young adults have already participated in the Teen Smart Program.

Inspired by “Safety for Everyone,” the program aims to strengthen the youth’s consciousness on the concept of road safety, and deepen their sense of responsibility in how they can help reduce road accidents and fatalities, practical things they can do especially as they near the licensing age, or even as pedestrians and passengers.

Developing a “Road Safety Mindset” means a enhancing the youth’s understanding of human-vehicle-environment relationships that would empower the min the crusade to have safer roads.

The latest run of the Teen Smart program was opened through a virtual signing of Memorandum of Understanding held on November 12, 2021 among the program partners Department of Education Sta. Rosa City represented by Manuela S. Tolentino, CESO V, Schools Division Superintendent, Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. by Vicenta Balarbar, General Manager for Business Services, Honda Philippines, Inc. by Gerry Datario, General Manager for Business Administration.

The sessions will be delivered by Honda Motor Japan-trained instructors of the Honda Safety Driving Center, the first and only world class training facility in the Philippines for driving and riding. Online learning sessions will be from November 2021 until May 2022, targeting public schools in Sta. Rosa City, Laguna. The MOU cites that with the integration of road safety in the senior high school curriculum, the partnership helps make quality education accessible to all and aids in the improvement of the public education system.