HEADS UP PROJECT “ALL BRAZILIANS ARE MAD FOR CARS” LEONARDO DA VINCI EDUCATIONAL CENTER VITÓRIA-ES-BRAZIL

PRESENTATION It is troublesome the amount of youngsters between 20 to 29 years old that every year die in car accidents in Brazil. Such statement makes urgent the implementation of policies that try to diminish these numbers. One of the best is the investment in education. Said so, the project “All Brazilians are mad for cars,” created since the year 2000, aims at creating actions that turn into an improvement in this context. It works with teenagers from 15 to 16 years old, which are in an age close with the contact with the automobile as the driver, but that are in contact with it in day-by-day life while pedestrians or on the backseat.

PRESENTATION In 2014 this was done with speeches with specialists in traffic, videos about car’s mechanics, classes about the Brazilian Traffic Code, first-aid courses. We also read the book “Trust in God, and get going” (Fé em Deus e pé na tábua), used driving simulators, and also the created a proposal to impact the diverse actors that make the traffic of the school’s street.

INVITATION In 2014, some of the students of the project proposed to continue the project with actions that involved the traffic of the school’s surrounding. Thus, it was with great enthusiasm that they received the news about the invite to represent Leonardo da Vinci Educational Center in the international educational project “YOUR Ideas, YOUR Iniatives,” launched by Renault about urban safety and mobility.

THE CREATION OF THE IDEA In 2014, the contest was offered to the students in the break time. The intention was to characterize it as a volunteer work; they should give up their time to do other things to participate in the project. From the initial 28 students of last year’s project, only 10 stayed until the campaign was complete. To create the idea there were many discussions during the breaks until the focus of the campaign was set. The students selected the use of technology by other actors of traffic (use of cellphone by pedestrians, and the use of headphones by cyclists) as the problem to be highlighted.

THE EXECUTION After the plan of action was scheduled, the recording happened in Saturdays, the editing in Fridays, and the week of the campaign. The students lost classes to act in front of the school, entering in every classroom thus achieving an audience of about 700 students.

THE EXECUTION - HIGHLIGHTS Recording day

THE EXECUTION - HIGHLIGHTS In the classrooms

THE EXECUTION - HIGHLIGHTS In the classrooms

VIDEO OF THE CAMPAIGN The purpose of the choice made by the students can be noticed even by the soundtrack. The music “A day in the life” was composed by the Beatles when they read the obituary of a politician that was run over and died. The other music “Eleanor Rigby,” also a Beatles music, is about a person who thought to be alone in the world, clarifying that we cannot think to be alone in traffic.