Kenya Training of Facilitators is complete! Time for follow up…

Kenya Training of Facilitators is complete! Time for follow up…

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

On Friday 6th December the YOURS Training of Facilitators completed its two week programme in Nairobi, Kenya! The programme was an incredible success with 14 youth leaders from a range of local and national Kenyan NGOs trained on key road safety theory and facilitation skills.

Over the past two weeks, we have placed a major feature on the YOURS website on our Capacity Development Training in Nairobi, Kenya. Last week, we completed our two weeks YOURS training programme that ‘Trained the Facilitators’, a group of talented youth leaders from leading road safety non-governmental organizations from across Kenya.

Week one was a successful exploration of key road safety theory workshops from the scope of the road safety problem in the world and Kenya, how crashes happen, youth and road traffic injuries, distracted driving, speeding, helmet usage as well as key facilitation skills; the key attributes of peer educators, presenters vs. facilitators, fundamentals of human learning and so forth. The training was completely youth orientated; created by and for young people with a range of brain friendly learning sessions which coupled art, theatre, creativity, debate, games and music to transmit road safety messages.

In week two, the participants firstly watched demonstration workshops and then prepared for their own workshops, which they delivered midweek. On practical feedback and analysis as well as individual feedback on facilitation skills, the participants completed the two week programme!

YOURS Director, Floor Lieshout thanks partners in the closing ceremony of the two week programme.

Further follow up is now placed into the hands of the young leaders who will now run their own youth and road safety workshops across Kenya over the coming year and beyond supported by their organizations. A video report of the event will come shortly!

We take this opportunity to thank our partners for making the Kenya Training of Facilitators happen. For more information about our Capacity Development Programme, click here.

The training was made possible by the support of:

Particiapants from the training were selected in partnership with:

As many as 500,000 people suffer spinal cord injuries via RTIs

As many as 500,000 people suffer spinal cord injuries via RTIs

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

 As many as 500 000 people suffer a spinal cord injury each year. People with spinal cord injuries are 2 to 5 times more likely to die prematurely, with worse survival rates in low- and middle-income countries. The new WHO report, “International perspectives on spinal cord injury”, summarizes the best available evidence on the causes, prevention, care and lived experience of people with spinal cord injury.

Press Release: World Health Organization

Males are most at risk of spinal cord injury between the ages of 20-29 years and 70 years and older, while females are most at risk between the ages of 15-19 years and 60 years and older. Studies report male to female ratios of at least 2:1 among adults.

Causes: 90% traumatic
Up to 90% of spinal cord injury cases are due to traumatic causes such as road traffic crashes, falls and violence. Variations exist across regions. For example, road traffic accidents are the main contributor to spinal cord injury in the African Region (nearly 70% of cases) and the Western Pacific Region (55% of cases) and falls the leading cause in the South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean Regions (40% of cases). Non-traumatic spinal cord injury results from conditions such as tumours, spina bifida, and tuberculosis. A third of non-traumatic spinal cord injury is linked to tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa.

Consequences of spinal cord injury
Most people with spinal cord injury experience chronic pain, and an estimated 20-30% show clinically significant signs of depression. People with spinal cord injury also risk developing secondary conditions that can be debilitating and even life-threatening, such as deep vein thrombosis, urinary tract infections, pressure ulcers and respiratory complications.

Spinal cord injury is associated with lower rates of school enrollment and economic participation. Children with spinal cord injury are less likely than their peers to start school, and once enrolled, less likely to advance. Adults with spinal cord injury face similar barriers to socio-economic participation, with a global unemployment rate of more than 60%. Spinal cord injury carries substantial individual and societal costs.

Spinal Cord injury and its effects are explained in the new WHO manual whereby a large proportion of the injury is caused by road traffic crashes.

Many of the consequences associated with spinal cord injury do not result from the condition itself, but from inadequate medical care and rehabilitation services, and from barriers in the physical, social and policy environments that exclude people with spinal cord injury from participation in their communities. Full Implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is urgently required to address these gaps and barriers.

“Spinal cord injury is a medically complex and life-disrupting condition,” notes Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Violence and Injury Prevention and Disability, WHO. “However, spinal cord injury is preventable, survivable, and need not preclude good health and social inclusion.”

Essential health measures
Essential measures for improving the survival, health and participation of people with spinal cord injury include:

  • timely, appropriate pre-hospital management: quick recognition of suspected spinal cord injury, rapid evaluation and initiation of injury management, including immobilization of the spine;
  • acute care appropriate to the level and severity of injury, degree of instability and presence of neural compression;
  • access to ongoing health care, health education and products such as catheters to reduce risk of secondary conditions and improve quality of life;
  • access to skilled rehabilitation and mental health services to maximize functioning, independence, overall well-being and community integration;
  • access to appropriate assistive devices that can enable people to perform everyday activities, reducing functional limitations and dependency; and
  • specialized knowledge and skills among providers of medical care and rehabilitation services.

Essential social and economic measures
Essential measures to secure the right to education and economic participation include legislation, policy and programmes that promote:

  •    physically accessible homes, schools, workplaces, hospitals and transportation;
  •     inclusive education;
  •     elimination of discrimination in employment and educational settings;
  •     vocational rehabilitation to optimize the chance of employment;
  •     micro-finance and other forms of self-employment benefits to support alternative forms of economic self-sufficiency;
  •     access to social support payments that do not act as disincentive to return to work; and
  •     correct understanding of spinal cord injury and positive attitudes towards people living with it.

“International perspectives on spinal cord injury” was developed in association with the International Spinal Cord Society and Swiss Paraplegic Research, and launched on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December 2013.

For more information please contact:
Laura Sminkey
WHO Geneva
Telephone: +41 22 791 4547
Mobile: +41 79 249 3520
E-mail: sminkeyl@who.int

Kenya Training of Facilitators reaching its region of completion!

Kenya Training of Facilitators reaching its region of completion!

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

The Kenya Training of Facilitators hosted by the United Nations Evironment Programme (UNEP) held against the backdrop of the United Nations Office at Nairobi is reaching its final stages. The two week training programme has trained a group of 14 youth leaders from across Kenya who will, after the training completes on Friday, will run their own workshops sharing road safety awareness throughout the country reaching potentially thousands of young people in the country.

The YOURS Capacity Development Pillar is built on reaching young people all across the world and developing skills and knowledge on road safety that will ripple through society. The Kenya Training of Facilitators which began on 25th November 2013 is in its final week and the 14 young facilitators specially selected for the programme are close to finishing the training and becoming skill youth and road safety peer educators and advocates.

As well as grasping a range of road safety topics from The Scope of the Road Safety Problem in the World and Kenya, Understanding How Crashes Happen, What puts youth at particular risk of RTIs to a host of key risk factors including; speed, distracted driving and helmet usage.

Following a groundbreaking training programme that couples in depth road safety theory in an entriely interactive, energetic and youth friendly method which couples theory with practise:

Currently, the youth participants have undergone their theory week through highly energetic and engaging workshops and have already seen a youth and road safety session in practise out in the field. The participants are now preparing their own workshops in which 75 youth from across Nairobi will be trained across 5 sessions tomorrow (Wednesday 4th December).

Kenyan youth leaders undergoing the interactive YOURS Training experience.

Once the training is complete the young people will embark on carrying out their own road safety workshops with their peers across Kenya reaching potentially thousands of young people in the country. The 2013 class join the trained faciliators of 2012 continuing the increasing capacity in the country.

The training was made possible by the support of:

Particiapants from the training were selected in partnership with:

The whole training has been filmed and documented and we will be sharing a video including testimonials from the participants soon!

Some of the training programme in action!

Stay tuned for more updates on the day including pictures on our Facebook Page and updates on Twitter.

Kenya Training of Facilitators off to an energetic and dynamic start!

Kenya Training of Facilitators off to an energetic and dynamic start!

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

Yesterday (Monday 25th November) saw the official launch of the YOURS Training of Facilitators at the stunning United Nations Office at Nairobi hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and share the road. Youth leaders specially selected came together to start a two week intensive road safety programme filled with interactive learning and the dynamism of the YOURS training experience.

Fourteen young leaders nominated by our key partners have officially begun their road safety learning experience via the YOURS Training of Facilitators. The programme is aimed to giving the youth leaders the opportunity to understand key principles in road safety and demonstrate them in their own workshops.

As week one gets off to a start, the young leaders have already tackled a host of road safety theory issues aswell as the fundamental elements of facilitation skills so as the group can run peer-led road safety workshops throughout the country once the training is over.

The fourteen young leaders were specially selected through a recruitment programme and identified as leadership champions who take the initiave to become trained facilitators as well as key advocated for road safety in Kenya. The young people were selected from a host of local and national NGOs with delivery support from:

The training is currently in its second day of a two week programme and currently the participants have covered:

  • Fundamentals of Human Learning
  • Peer Education
  • Scope of the Road Safety Problem in world and Kenya
  • Youth and Road Traffic Injuries
  • Understanding Road Safety

Young Kenyan leaders undergoing the YOURS Training of Facilitators

As the training continues, the young people will continue their active learning on key risk factors including speed, helmets and distracted driving and will use their skills to develop their own localized training workshops to run with the wider Kenyan population as well as filtering of workshop to be run by Brian (our regular columnist) who is also attending the programme in attendance from Uganda.

In week two, the young people will run their training programmes for real in pilot workshops coordinated by the Kenya Red Cross at the Karen Langata Branch where over volunteers will be trained in two key road safety topics.

Stay tuned for more updates on the day including pictures on our Facebook Page and updates on Twitter.

Training of Facilitators to kick off – Monday 25th Nov at United Nations

Training of Facilitators to kick off – Monday 25th Nov at United Nations

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

The YOURS Training of Facilitators, a core component of our Capacity Development Programme will kick of next week (Monday 25th November) at the United Nations Office in Nairobi, the headquaters of the United Nations in Africa. The training of facilitators will build on the work of last year’s programmes with a new set of young Kenyan leaders who will go out and run their own workshops in their communities.

Next weel, YOURS will run the second Training of Facilitators in Nairobi, Kenya, building on the success of the First Kenya Training of Facilitators that took place last year. We thank our key partners that have made the second training possible, which will give a new group youth leaders to opportunity to be trained on road safety topics and facilitation skills. We highlight our key partners below

The training will be set against the backdrop of the beautiful grounds of the United Nations Environment Programme at the United Nations Office at Nairobi across acres of greenery and inspirational landscapes where paritipants will have the opportunity to commit to road safety for the years ahead.

We will also be working with a host of local NGOs on the ground in Kenya who will work with us to deliver a new cohort of facilitators who will, after the training, run their own workshops across Kenya. The training will run from 25th November 2013 – 6th December 2013  is being hosted at the United Nations Campus in Nairobi, Kenya (supported by the United Nations Evnironment Programme; Share the Road). 

Floor Lieshout, Director of YOURS said, “Along side Safe Roads, Safe Vehicles and Post Crash Care, we need Safe Road Users. Youth play a fundamental role in creating these safe road users. Their participation must be built in to road safety intiatives. When youth are well informed, inspired, skilled and given a real chance to participate, they are very powerful allies to energize the `road safety revolution´ in a country as peer educators, advocates and innovators”.

The YOURS Training of Facilitators takes place over a two week period and is an intensive training that prepares young people in understanding road safety theory and risk factors alongside practical facilitation skills. Week one focuses on road safety knowledge and skills to be an effective peer educator, week two offers in the field practical experience. 

Read about the Kenya Training of Facilitators

Key outcomes of the training are as follows:

  1. Increase young people´s understanding of the road safety crisis in Kenya and the risks they face on the roads (e.g.: speeding, helmets, distracted driving).
  2. Promote and increase the involvement of young people in road safety efforts in Kenya.
  3. Build the knowledge and develop the skills of 10-15 youth leaders in order for them to implement their own road safety activities

Read everything you need to know about the YOURS Training of Facilitators here.

As always, YOURS will be ‘live’ reporting from the event which will also bring back last year’s facilitators to share their experience of independently running workshops after the training and their overall advice for new facilitators creating an on going support mechanism.

Brian’s Column: Destructive adverts and updates from Africa!

Brian’s Column: Destructive adverts and updates from Africa!

by | Dec 9, 2023 | News & Blog

In this edition of Brian’s Column, we get an update of all things African road safety from the commemoration of the World Day of Remembrance and updates in the region as well as an exploration of adverts that detract from road safety messages. Check out Brian’s Column for all the latest in African Youth and Road Safety issues!

Hello superstars…November couldn’t have started at a higher note. Thanks for staying alive and influencing your sphere of influence (and I mean every one ranging from your family, school, peers and your dog too). It’s all our responsibility. As for me, I had the chance to start the new month on the right foot with a shot at the National Emergency Trauma care symposium where issues to do with policy, research and practice were discussed with a strong focus on our national road safety plan.

We can’t really keep quiet on ‘the leading cause of avoidable death among 15-44 year olds’. Needless to say, I met a number of injury management superstars:-but you have all heard about Dr. Olive Kobusingye? She is a renowned researcher, and she doesn’t need much introductions: Just ask Google. I asked her to marry me, and she responded ‘I am already very busy with injury, trauma prevention & advocacy’! Sounded tasty!

Brian with Dr. Olive Kobusingye talking all things emergency trauma care.

In case you didn’t know, Sunday 17th November was the world day of remembrance for road traffic victims. We look forward to receiving your photos and videos of your work sooner.

This is not like any other day! From 1995, Road Victim Advocacy NGOs under the umbrella of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims, FEVR, observed this Day (initiated by UK’s Road Peace in 1993) – first as European Day of Remembrance, but soon as World Day when NGOs from South Africa, Argentina and Israel joined.

Road deaths and injuries are sudden, violent, traumatic events, the impact of which is long-lasting, often permanent. Each year, millions of newly injured and bereaved people from every corner of the world are added to the countless millions already suffering as the result of a road crash. The burden of grief and distress experienced by this huge number of people is all the greater because many of the victims are young, because many of the crashes could and should have been prevented and because the response to road death and injury and to victims and families is often inadequate, unsympathetic, and inappropriate to the loss of life or quality of life.

This special Remembrance Day is intended to respond to the great need of road crash victims for public recognition of their loss and suffering (see Messages & Thoughts from victims). This day has also become an important tool for governments and all those whose work involves crash prevention or response to the aftermath, since it offers the opportunity to demonstrate the enormous scale and impact of road deaths and injuries and the urgent need for concerted action to stop the carnage. So, please always highlight it on your calendar.

Let me also fly you to Namibia where MVA has supported high traffic fines! Congrats really! The Motor-Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA) says the existing high traffic fines are necessary in order to deter would-be traffic offenders from doing just that. The Fund’s management team said this in a statement issued yesterday in response to the leadership of the Namibia Taxi and Transport Union (NTTU)’s petition to the National Assembly (NA) on issues relating to Namibia’s road infrastructure, as well as the organisation’s calls for the reduction of traffic fines.

The union submitted a petition to the NA on 25 July 2013, which petition was referred to the Standing Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs on 03 October this year for further action. The MVA is of the opinion that the fines are necessary, as road safety education for adults in the country is “toothless”. 

Overtake if you want, advert on the back of a car in Uganda.

We can only wish that this action becomes contagious in countries who according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013: Supporting a Decade of Action(2013), Nigeria and South Africa have the highest road traffic death rates (33.7 and 31.9/100 000, respectively) and, together with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, account for 64% of all road traffic deaths in the region.

Kicking it: I was taken aback by one ad being used by one of the radio stations in western Uganda: Have a look at this sticker on this car!Of course we couldn’t keep quiet about it, we’ve already approached the radio station and discussed the implications of using such ads to road safety. Please keep an eye on these kinds of ads: they are everywhere, but they don’t mean what they say!

Oh, and I haven’t told you that YOURS is coming to Nairobi-Kenya again for its youth capacity building programme: shhhhss…come down, ok…live updates will be on YOURS Social Media Platforms. #STAYSAFEINNOVEMBER

Read about the YOURS Capacity Programme taking place in Kenya next week!