X5 Group, a leading Russian food retailer, has announced the results of its Safety Zones project for 2022

Safety Zones is the Group’s joint project with the Centre to Search for Missing People and the Liza Alert search and rescue volunteer team launched at X5’s Pyaterochka and Perekrestok retail chains. In 2022, the project helped 1,183 lost or disoriented people return home safely through the joint efforts of store employees, the project’s specialists and rescue volunteers. Most requests for help were received at stores in Moscow, St Petersburg, Perm, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.
As part of the project, each store has a specially designated area marked with an orange geolocation pin to guide people who are lost. Anyone who lost their way can enter a Pyaterochka or Perekrestok store and seek assistance from a store employee or wait until help is offered. A total of 3,831 people have received assistance since 2019, when the project was launched, including 228 children.

In 2022, Pyaterochka designed a safety class called Adventure Island in partnership with the Centre to Search for Missing People with support from Liza Alert. This game-based class, which was offered to kindergarten and elementary school children, discusses tips to avoid getting lost and what to do if it does happen, in addition to explaining how Safety Zones at stores can help.

The Centre to Search for Missing People additionally held workshops for schoolteachers in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Syktyvkar and several districts of the Samara Region to train them on how to organise Adventure Island classes for their students. This year, the project is set to be expanded to kindergarten and elementary school educators in other regions of Russia.