VIA is an educational program designed to create a network of VIA schools and train young ambassadors to raise awareness of safe mobility among their peers. The program is deployed by TotalEnergies and its affiliates throughout the world.
Out of the 270,000 pedestrians killed worldwide each year, many are children on their way to school, and most of them in the southern hemisphere. Broken families, professional careers that will never happen – unprotected mobility has countless consequences and the cost for the community is huge.
To fight against lack of road safety, the leading cause of death among young people around the world, the VIA program for safe mobility takes action alongside young people to improve the conditions in which they travel to and from school, by allowing young people themselves to speak out about the subject and raise awareness among all members of the education community.
A program deployed in 24 countries in 2025
The countries in which VIA is deployed are selected from among the regions in which TotalEnergies is present, depending on their accident rate and their level of development: South Africa, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malawi, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, Uganda, Romania, the Republic of Guinea, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia.
Training student ambassadors to raise awareness among as many young people as possible
VIA trains young ambassadors in each participating school so that they can design and roll out awareness-raising activities for all young people and the community. VIA ambassadors are chosen among the students in agreement with the school principal and the teachers.
The ambassadors’ aim, supported by training instructors, is to take action to raise awareness among as many school-goers as possible, in their own neighborhood, those close by, and within their community. Ambassadors are not beneficiaries of the program, but the crucial kingpins of its deployment.
The impact of the program is measured by the results of awareness-raising actions in and around each school in which the VIA program is deployed.
Six-step local deployment
Step 1: Presentation of VIA in schools
Aim: to make sure that school principals have the right information about the program and are willing to be involved - essential prerequisites to support the work done by ambassadors and promote the desired changes. This stage also aims to identify and select VIA ambassadors in each participating school.
Step 2: Training VIA ambassadors
Aim: to train young ambassadors so that they understand their role toward other young people and the responsibilities they have in contributing to improvements around the school.
Step 3: Observation phase
Aim: the ambassadors create a map of the risks generated by school-related journeys. To prepare this document, they need to participate in the discovery walk and make a list of observations. In addition to the risk map, they will also make a one-minute video to share their observations.
Step 4: Recommendations phase - Action plan
Aim: the ambassadors write a series of practical proposals to improve young people’s safety as they travel to and from school.
Step 5: Awareness-raising actions
Aim: the groups of ambassadors organize three awareness-raising actions.
One of these actions must be taken in the school (e.g. instructive sessions in each class, creation of wall paintings etc.).
The second action must be taken in (and with) the community (e.g. awareness-raising campaigns for drivers in parking areas, use of social media, etc.).
The third action is the creation and distribution of a prevention poster based on the observations and recommendations made.
Step 6: VIA Finals
The VIA finals are a key moment when the work of the participating schools is acknowledged and the observations, recommendations and practical measures are shared with all the stakeholders.
They are organized first at national, then at international, level. Juries comprising representatives from partner NGOs, TotalEnergies affiliates and education and transport authorities who select the contributions from ambassadors who best convey the values of the program.
The VIA international finals feature the winning schools of each participating country. A specific partnership with UNESCO and its regional offices provides experts in education and sustainable development to be part of the jury.
The school chosen in each country to take part in the international finals will receive specific support to deploy one of its awareness-raising actions on a wider scale and will benefit from media attention to reach out to as many young people as possible in their country.
The 2025 international finals will be held in November 2025. TotalEnergies Corporate Foundation will invite representatives of the young ambassadors from the winning school of the VIA international finals to Paris, to meet different stakeholders in education (UNESCO), road safety (Special Envoy of the United Nations for road safety), and to take part in a range of cultural and introductory workshops.
International ambassadors:
- In 2022, the ambassadors from the Les Practiciens school in Dakar;
- In 2023, the ambassadors from the CSI Ewart Global School of Chennai in India;
- And in 2024, the ambassadors from the Collège de la Sainte Famille Française of Fanar in Lebanon.
Since 2021 the VIA program has:
- Been deployed in 43 countries;
- Raised awareness among 924,030 young people;
- Been welcomed in 2,189 schools;
- Trained 11,607 ambassadors.