The FIA Foundation joined mobility and sport clubs from across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, for the FIA Americas Congress in Cartagena, Colombia, organized by the Automobile Club of Colombia.

FIA Foundation Programmes Manager, Aggie Krasnolucka, shared updates on its work in the region and opportunities for further collaboration, and attendees heard from regional speakers as well as key FIA figures including: New President Mohammed Ben Sulayem; Vice President for Mobility, Tim Shearman; President of the Senate, Carmelo Sanz De Barros; Vice President for Sport, Robert Reid; President of Region IV Ricardo Morales; and President of Region III, Frank Fotia. 

Attendees visited the Colegio Pedro Romero School, where the Automobile Club of Colombia has supported infrastructure changes including widening walkways, adding road signs, and building raised crossings to slow and stop road traffic. The school safety project is part of the Club's ongoing commitment to child road safety, and is part of its work as a recipient of FIA Road Safety grants, which are supported by the FIA Foundation. 

The project used the iRAP Star Rating For Schools (SR4S) methodology to assess and make recommendations to improve the safety infrastructure of the school and was used to showcase to other clubs how to undertake similar activities. The visit included representatives from the FIA Congress as well as representatives of the Mayor of Cartagena's office and the National Road Safety Agency from Bogota who heard from local school children about why road safety should be a priority. 

Aggie Krasnolucka, FIA Foundation Programmes Manager, said: “The Automobile Club of Colombia showed clubs across the region how they can deliver meaningful community engagement and change to deliver streets for life. It is great to see how Star Ratings for Schools can be used to deliver effective and popular infrastructure changes in all types of contexts.”