• We will distribute 3.500 MUACs amongst our passengers at our ticket offices at the bus stations in Ferrol, A Coruña, Lugo and Santiago de Compostela, in November 2008.
• In developing countries, MUACs (Middle-Upper Arm-Circumference) are bracelets placed on a child’s upper arm to measure his nutritional state.
• Each MUAC handed out will mean another person sending out the message that millions of children can be saved from starvation by being provided with Reddy to consume, therapeutic food. A solution which, at the moment, only reaches 3% of victims.
• We also encourage participation in an online-marathon to promote this initiative on the web www.tratamientorevolucionario.com.

STATEMENTS

During the presentation of this initiative, at the Ferrol bus station, on November 4th 2008, Tony Williamson, Managing Director of Arriva in Spain and Portugal, stated:

Arriva’s Code of Conduct states that all professionals in the company, “should contribute to improve the quality of life of society”, as well as “making efforts to reduce the impact of our activity on the environment”.
Solidarity and on-going development are part of the company’s values and both are closely related to the fight against famine in the third World. That’s why we’re delighted to collaborate with Médicos sin Fronteras in this initiative.

María Díaz Martínez, representative of Médicos sin Fronteras in the Northwest of Spain was also present, she stated:

It’s necessary for people to be aware of the causes, consequences and Solutions of infant malnutrition. We hope that, by living out MUACs and doing the on-line marathon, we will be able to make the Galician population aware of the fact that 20 million children suffer severe malnutrition every year.

IMAGES

You can download photos of the presentation on our Flickr:

DOCUMENTATION

You can download this press release pressing print at the end of this article. There’s also the following related material available:

• Leaflet Infant malnutrition, an unattended medical emergency (Spanish PDF 1,10MB).
• Link to press release Twenty million children in danger of dying need an answer, by Médicos sin Fronteras (Spanish).

REACTIONS

Press (PDF 883 KB) | EcoDiario.es | La Voz de Galicia.es |

Our operator in Galicia has, since May 2008, an ISO 9001 certificate for Quality and another ISO 14001 certificate for Environmental Management.

The Customer Satisfaction and Environmental Management certificates in Arriva Noroeste were presented to the Executive Director of the company, Tony Williamson, by the General Director of Transport of the Xunta de Galicia, Mar Chao, and the assistant to the Trade Department of Bureau Veritas.

Safety Audits

• All the companies under Arriva undergo annual safety exams by internal and external auditors, who make sure company standards are reached.

Risk Prevention

• That professionals in Arriva are trained in emergency driving techniques, fire simulations and first aid to deal with safety threats.

European Road Safety Charter

• Arriva is the first passenger transport company to sign the European Road Safety Charter, which aims to reduce road deaths by 50% in 2010.

International Certificates.

• The companies in Arriva follow the rules and regulations of quality and safety established by the most prestigious international certificates.

However, in Arriva we are aware that our vehicle emissions also contribute to global warming. Because of this, we are constantly working on reducing the impact on nature by improving, above all, the efficient use of water and fuel.

Sustainable Practices

• In the last six years, we have invested more than 450 million pounds on new trains and buses which follow European environmental regulations.
• We are researching hybrid engineering and hydrogen combustion for our vehicles in collaboration with the main bus manufacturers.
• We are also researching the different use of fuels, such as Ultra-Low Sulpher Diesel, natural gas and Palm oil Biodiesel to reduce the environmental impact of our vehicles.