Uruguay

The Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez is a non-profit and non-governmental organization, officially operating in Uruguay since October 2000 and registered both in the United States and England, as a memorial for race car driver born in Uruguay, Gonzalo Rodríguez. The organization became a member of Safe Kids Worldwide in 2011. Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez has three major goals: to increase education, improve health and further development among children.

From its beginning, the organization has worked to improve the quality of life for thousands of Uruguayan children. Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez began by developing sports programs as a way to educate and reach children from various schools and backgrounds. Recognizing road traffic accidents as a major risk to children’s health and development, the organization’s current primary focus is building and developing a Road Safety Plan for children, called EDU-CAR.

Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez works with global partners such as the FIA Foundation and the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility and was selected as one of the 15 members of the Transitional Committee for Road Safety in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Highlights

“Use a Child Car Seat. Travel Safely. Get there Safely” Campaign Launch

In October, the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez (FGR) re-launched the road safety campaign "Use a Child Car Seat" at Punta Carretas Shopping Center as a part of the framework of the EDU-CAR plan for children and road safety. National Authorities, Montevideo departmental officials, Child Restraint System (CRS) importers and personnel involved in road safety were present during the launch event.

EDU-CAR aims to protect the children of today and educate them as the drivers of tomorrow by promoting a cultural change in the society, respecting and giving value to safe behaviors towards children. In order to achieve this objective, FGR created a multimedia campaign through TV, radio, print media, billboards and internet, with support from several media agencies across the country. 

The campaign has the following objectives: 1) to raise awareness in the society that CRS need to be used as it is the only possible way to ensure children travel safely, 2) to involve authorities and various stakeholders to promote and regulate CRS and 3) to motivate the population to adopt the habit of CRS use. This campaign is especially important as there are no current CRS laws in Uruguay. 

Child Restraint Systems (CRS) Checkpoint

The official launch of the “CRS Checkpoint” took place in August with attendance from Punta Carretas Shopping Mall authorities, national road safety authorities and representatives of child seat importing companies. At Punta Carretas Shopping Mall, which is one of the most popular malls in Montevideo, the internationally trained CPS technicians of the Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez (FGR) gave advice to parents and other adults responsible for the transportation of children. They educated the adults about the installation of different types of CRS and ways to select the best car seat based on their car type, and weight and height of the child.

Two members of EDU-CAR team were certified as Child Passenger Safety Technicians in October 2010 in Chicago by the Safe Kids Worldwide’s National Child Passenger Safety Certification Program. The Foundation offers free advice to parents on CRS installation and verification.