After taking part in Habitat III, the third conference organised by the United Nations on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which ran from 17 to 20 October, Todt flew to the Colombian capital, where he was involved in two promotional events: the launch of a campaign promoting road safety for school transport and another called “Colombianos rumbo a la F1” (Colombians towards F1,) which as its name implies is aimed at attracting young Colombians to motor sport at a grass roots level.

#enrutados is the hashtag to the campaign promoted by the Superintendence of Freight and Transport of the Colombian government to propagate the concept of safe school transport in over 100 Colombian schools. The campaign is supported by various companies, such as Michelin and is fronted by the ACC (Automovil Club de Colombia).

“If we all work together we can obtain visible results even from kids. We must act as a team and make road safety a priority,” said Todt at the press conference which took place on Thursday 20th October at the Rosario Santo Domingo school in the Chapinero district, which was also attended by the Colombian Minister for Transport, Jorge Rojas Giraldo and the President of the ACC Ricardo Morales Rubio. The campaign promotes the concept of safe transport for children, with an emphasis on explaining best practice, as well as establishing training programmes for teachers and parents.

This campaign completes the action led by the ACC through the project "La Calle y Yo" supported by the FIA Road Safety Grant Programme. This project aims at raising awareness among school children on the precautions to take on their way to and from school and on the most common situations and risks with traffic on public roads through the organisation of a video contest.

This morning, Todt had a meeting with the Minister of Transport Jorge Rojas Giraldo: on the agenda, an overview of road safety in Colombia and further initiatives to improve it. At the meeting the Minister also joined the #savekidslives campaign by signing its by now well-known board.

On the motor sport front, the ACC made use of President Todt’s presence today to present a project aimed at youngsters of both sexes in between the ages of 11 and 13, to bring them closer to the first step on the motor sport ladder, namely karting. The karting programme features three modules, which work their way up through Basic, Competent and Championship and include both theoretical and practical work. After a selection process, 14 youngsters will take part in the first edition.  “At every place I visit around the world I try and spread the idea that there is a need to promote motor sport for the very young and the first step to get them going is karting” said Todt at the launch of the programme, which took place in the Ministry of Sport building. “Colombia has made great progress and I am very pleased to be here to present this initiative and to give it all my support. It would be nice to see a Colombian driver in F1 once again!”