Volkswagen Philippines kicks off the upgraded version of its award-winning Child Safety Initiative (CSI) campaign at the atrium of the Robinsons Magnolia Mall in Quezon City on May 20.

The CSI, launched during the Manila International Auto Show in April 2015, is a child road safety advocacy that increases awareness and imparts valuable lessons towards preparing the kids—along with their parents—to become responsible adult road users. So far, the CSI campaign has had a total of 7,917 children and 5,955 parents/guardians participating in 37 venues in Luzon and Visayas.

The CSI activities happening this May 20 and 21, starting from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., however, will introduce an added program. Aside from the Junior Driving Course which features a miniature simulated roadway within a community, complete with road signages, stoplights, and Volkswagen push cars for kids 4 to 8 years old, and samples of child seats on display at the Child Seat Corner, there is the new Steps to Safety module for children 9 to 12 years old.

Designed primarily for older children and those who have “graduated” from the Junior Driving Course, the Steps to Safety module now focuses on pedestrian safety and begins with a 15-minute seminar conducted by executive officers of CSI partner Philippine Global Road Safety Partnership (PGRSP). The seminar includes practical guide for real-life and on-street scenarios such as instructions to walk “facing the traffic” and in “single file” whenever there are no pedestrian sidewalks, among others.

The practical application of the module is then conducted via a virtual reality (VR) game app—exclusively developed for Volkswagen Philippines by award-winning game developer Haraya—and played on Samsung Gear VR  and Samsung phones.

The introduction of the Steps to Safety module and the VR game app entice older children to become part of the growing number of youngsters made more aware and responsible road users, and is also an avenue for the thousands of Junior Driving Course graduates to “level up.”

Volkswagen Philippines’ upgraded CSI campaign is in line with the German automaker’s global CSI strategy geared towards upholding the two pillars of road safety: Preventing road mishaps through educating parents and kids about possible dangers on the roads, and; Promoting the passive safety inside Volkswagen vehicles.