YOURS CORE Group Representative for South East Asia Dr Naren Nallapeta is a trained surgeon and a member of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Association (IMFSA), the biggest association of medication professionals around the world. He is also passionate about road safety and on the basis of this, attended the 63rd IMFSA General Assembly in Taiwan, Province of China, with the mission of sharing road safety.

It is of great pleasure to have attended the 63rd General Assembly of IFMSA this past week in Taipei, Taiwan, Province of China, where inspired delegates from more than 98 countries were there. The meeting was just wonderful with inspired youth from the medical fraternity were there to discuss the problems of the world. The theme for this General Assembly was ‘Sustainable Development for the New Era’ and externals from various organizations came in to discuss the issue with the delegates.

As a part of the same, I got a chance to represent YOURS and also brainstorm with various other medical students and youth regarding road safety and its impact in the world scenario. I got a session to facilitate in the SCOPH (Standing Committee of Public Health) Sessions on 7th morning.

The session began at 8:30 AM with more than 80 SCOPH participants who are active in public health issues in their respective countries. It was a very interactive and productive session with active participation from all the national representatives. The topic of discussion was ‘Scope of the Problem’!! Here the issue of road safety is a problem of the world was discussed and a fruitful discussion went on regarding the risk factors determining road traffic accidents, why is road traffic accidents the highest cause of mortality in the youth and so on.

All participants were given a chance to think and come up with the 5 main factors leading to road traffic accidents. The Decade of Road Safety and the pillars of the same were discussed too in depth. Special attention and discussion took place in the Post-trauma care and emergency medical services.

There was a great disparity in the arrival of emergency medical services in different countries where countries in the African region and the Asian Subcontinent had a diverse answer and did not have a concrete time within which the emergency services would reach the crash site.

Most of the countries do not have a comprehensive emergency training in their undergraduate level in the area of post-trauma care, advanced life support and everyone felt that it must be made compulsory and a part of the medical curriculum worldwide.

Overall many solutions were discussed for this worldwide problem and the importance of care was spread to all. Take home message was for each of us to take a little more care in their lives as each and every one of us are at risk on roads in our daily lives and being a preventable cause of death must be more emphasized and care to be taken by people all around the world.  

This update was provided by Dr Naren Nallapeta – Coordinator of the South East Asia Region at YOURS.

Last month, YOURS parntered with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Government of Belize to run the training of facilitators in the region. A two week programme introducing 19 young Belizean leaders to road safety and facilitation, we have captured the two weeks in a short video with participant and partner testimonials!

With the support of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in partnership with the Government of Belize (GOBZ) last month, YOURS successfully completed a two week Training of Facilitators undertaken by 19 bright, passionate and inspiring youth leaders from across Belize.

The training, part of a wider 20 month educational project existing alongside major road infrastructure and law enforcement upgrades comes at a time where young people are the biggest affected group in relation to road traffic crashes. The national road safety project sees the development of several major highways and the illustrative ‘road safety corridor’ which will be created as a beacon for the rest of the country to follow suit in safe infrastructure. Belize alone has 22.2 inhabitants dying per 100,000 citizens; a high proportion of road deaths in the world and one of the highest in the Caribbean. We place this in comparison to other countries such as The Netherlands which has a ratio of 3.4 per 100,000 and the UK’s 3.7 per 100,000 citizens.

The video gives an insight into the rationale of the project starting with the facts that face young Belizeans in terms of road traffic crashes and the startling numbers of deaths in comparison to other countries. There is also an from partners on expections and, on reaching the conclusion of the training, how the participants felt about the workshop in general.

In this month’s column, Brian explores the masculinity around driving behaviour in africa. From driving too fast to the phrase, ‘You drive like a girl’. Does this mean women drive better or worse? Brian’s column explores some of ideals behind masculine driving and combating the idea of a ‘driving like a girl’.

Hello there, please grab some popcorn because this is gonna have you clad onto your seat! Wherever, you are reading this from, thank you for staying and encouraging your sphere of influence to be safe! So, let’s go straight into the mix, shall we?

Just a quick update:
In the world of trauma and prehospital care, the climax of July within the East Africa Region and Africa to be precise seems to have been the 7th Pan African PCAF Psycho trauma Conference. This conference was organised by the Peter C. Alderman Foundation team from July 21st -23rd 2014 in the beautiful location of Mbarara, Uganda:-my local home town! The conference which was attended to by 508 delegates from 21 African countries and 7 others outside of Africa aimed to draft a way forward regarding trauma in the region.

All delegates had specific interest in mental health and psychosocial support services for populations affected by armed conflict and adversity more broadly in Africa. It was a perfect occasion to learn from colleagues about new developments as well as stimulating presentations and discussions around first aid and road safety, refugee mental health; mental health in primary care; sexual and gender-based violence; psychological and social interventions in post-conflict areas; and children, adolescents and trauma. As it stood out in the conference road crashes are the #1 killer of young people worldwide and inevitably increases the physical economic, social and emotional burden of trauma on the already poor communities in developing countries.

Now, you know why and how the bug of “He drives like a girl” appeared in the discussions as one of the causes of road traffic crashes especially amongst young drivers. While at the conference, my ‘feminist’ views on road safety were put onto a beam balance in what some delegates called “Drive Like A Girl” – a naked advocacy statement targeting especially  young people aged between 17 and 30 to be safety conscious drivers by “driving like a girl”. I am not so sure what you are thinking right now: O Alright, ok, I’m being slightly cheeky there but the delegates meant the target population should be able to drive with all eyes open, always gluing to all the road signs as well taking a break on long journeys.

But I am not sorry to apologise as ‘Drive Like A Girl’ kinda makes me slightly uneasy. Does it under look females and encourage the aggressiveness of young male drivers? Does it demean females as poor drivers?

The bottom line: According to my feminine doctrines and backgrounds (as a male, an equality and equity convert!), yes, it does. The usage of a female-bug to portray safety especially in the current patriarchal society will have a negative feedback mechanism amongst young male drivers that will be characterized by mockery:-‘Look, He Drivers LIKE A GIRL’. Consequently, this will increase chances of speeding, breaking the road rules, showing the masculinity: all culminating into higher road traffic crashes and mortalities. But again, that’s my opinion, as I don’t have an evidence based research findings on this. What do you think? Are you ready to ‘Drive Like A Girl?’ Whatever your answer is, it should be encouraging my safety, your safety and our safety! Hello August! ☺