Take part in WHO photo competition for adolescent health – win $US 1000!

Take part in WHO photo competition for adolescent health – win $US 1000!

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

As part of its work with young people, the World Health Organization is putting together a report on the health of the world’s adolescents. The report will look at the health and development of adolescents, present summaries of what is known about adolescent health – including what promotes or undermines their health – and how communities and countries are meeting adolescents’ needs for health and development. As part of that report, the WHO is reaching out to young people to take part in their adolescent health photo competition.

There is an exciting opportunity for young people aged 14-19 to take part in a WHO photo competition to promote adolescent health. The WHO are currently putting together a report on the state of global adolescent health and as part of that, here at YOURS, we strongly believe that road safety should be part of that report illustrating that road traffic crashes are a serious health concern for all young people, globally.

We therefore call upon you, the Global Youth Network for Road Safety to take part in this photo competition and encourage 14-19 year olds that you know to take part! It is a great opportunity to showcase your photo skills with a chance of winning $US 1000 and a special opportunity to work with WHO as one of 10 contributing photographers for the Health for the World’s Adolescents report!

The themes on which WHO are looking for photos are:

  • Adolescents are healthy (engaging in healthy activities)
  • Adolescents learn about health (health education)
  • Adolescents use health services when needed
  • It can be difficult to stay healthy (images about the environment and risk-behaviours)
  • Adolescents are active in promoting health (advocating for health, participation) 

In terms of road safety, your work as road safety abassadors could be captured in photos for this competition!

Who can enter?
The competition is free to enter and is open to anyone between the ages of 14-19 from all countries. If you are under 18, you must have your parent or legal guardian’s consent to submit your images to the competition.

Competition prize
The prize of the competition is the opportunity to work with WHO as one of 10 contributing photographers for the Health for the World’s Adolescents report. Each winner will be provided with a bursary of $US 1000 to take photos. The photos will belong to the winners, although WHO will have the right to use them in the report and for future publications.

For some inspiration, check out the Long Short Walk!

Key dates
The photo competition whas been open since 15 July 2013. The deadline for entries is 15 September 2013. A panel will judge the photographs and winners will be contacted individually by 15 October 2013. Winners will be expected to provide their photographs by 15 November 2013.

How do I enter the competition?

  • Your contact information
  • Your age, sex and country of residence
  • Why you want to be involved
  • Which one of the 5 themes (see above) your photographs will focus on if you are one of the winners
  • Your experience in taking photographs
  • A completed consent form (see the link below)
  • Between 5-10 photos together with captions (please certify that you have taken these photos yourself)
  • What camera you used to take the photos you send in, and the details of any edits you have made (permitted editing includes minor burning, dodging, cropping and/or colour corrections).
  • Please send an email to adohealth2014@gmail.com with the subject line “photo” and include in the body of the email:

You can find out more information about the competition here.

Update from the online chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Agenda

Update from the online chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Agenda

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

On Thursday (18th July 2013), The Center for American Progress ran a social media chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Development Agenda. It focused on the important role young people will play in shaping and realizing the Post-2015 Development Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are happy to announce that the efforts of our partners and youth network brought road safety to the discussion with a question posed to the panel and answered by the chair of the discussion.

A year ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a panel of 26 eminent people, including Center for American Progress Chair John Podesta and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, to make recommendations for an ambitious global development agenda beyond the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals – the shared global antipoverty targets co-signed by all U.N. member states – at the end of 2015.

On Thursday 18th July, a social media chat took place in a Google+ Hangout to discuss youth issues for the Post-2015 agenda. It offered young people from around the world a chance to talk about pertinent issues related to global sustainable development. On the panel was Mr John Podesta, Chair of the Center for American Progress and the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Under his leadership American Progress has become a notable leader in the development of and advocacy for progressive policy.

Alongside Podesta was Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, Tawakkol Karman was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 in recognition of her work in nonviolent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peacebuilding work in Yemen.

We called upon  young people via social media to join together to bring road safety to the Post-2015 Agenda.

A joint advocacy push
In collaboration with the Makes Road Safe Campaign, the NGO Alliance for Road Safety and Global Youth Network for Road Safety, called upon young people, in our network and beyond to join together to call for road safety to be part of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. The result was a joint advocacy push for road safety to be included as a topic of dicussion. We are happy to announce that a question on youth and road safety issues was put forward to the panel which John Podesta answered.

The question posed asked why, as the biggest killer of young people, that road safety is not included as a target for the agenda.

Specifically, we are pushing to bring attention to the facts that:

  • road traffic injuries are the No.1 killer of young people and this is unacceptable
  • this is a development issue, as it predominantly affects people in fast developing countries (low and middle-income)
  • every day hundreds of thousands of young people commute to school using dangerous roads, we do not want to die to get an education
  • the global road safety crisis needs a global solution and can only be tackled with a global cooperation
  • we, the young people, care about this issue, and road safety must be in the post-2015 agenda

The Youth and Road Safety Action Kit offers an introduction to the road safety crisis facing young people globally. Read it here.

John Podesta recognized the question and the cause as a very important point for public health in terms of improving infrastructure to minimize risk to young people and the benefits that come from investing in road safety. Podesta mentioned the discussion by the UN High Level panel on incuding the need for more refinement and work to include road safety in some form in the agenda. He noted,

‘I’m hopeful as the Post-2015 process goes forward that continued attention on road safety will be front and center in the open working group process but also in the member state process’

This statement recognizes road safety as a major public health concern globally for all young people and as Podesta mentions, the momentum in keeping this cause on the agenda is needed to ensure that it is included in the targets for the Post-2015 development agenda. YOURS will be offering ways in which this can happen shortly in collaboration with you, the global youth network for road safety.

We thank you for your efforts so far and will keep you updated on the input for bringing road safety to the Sustainable Development Goals for the Post-2015 Agenda. The video can be viewed in the right column or by clicking on the picture below:

Take part in tomorrow’s online chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Agenda

Take part in tomorrow’s online chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Agenda

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

Tomorrow (Thursday 18th July 2013) The Center for American Progress is running a social media chat on Youth and the Post-2015 Agenda. It takes place at 08:30 EST (13:30 BST) The panel’s report recognizes in particular the important role young people will play in shaping and realizing the post-2015 agenda. We call upon our youth network to take part and bring road safety to the table!

A year ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened a panel of 26 eminent people, including Center for American Progress Chair John Podesta and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tawakkol Karman, to make recommendations for an ambitious global development agenda beyond the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals – the shared global antipoverty targets co-signed by all U.N. member states – at the end of 2015. 

If you are a young person with clear ideas, please join us for a social media chat with John Podesta and Tawakkol Karman to discuss youth issues and the post-2015 development agenda.

The panel’s report recognizes in particular the important role young people will play in shaping and realizing the post-2015 agenda.

Read more about the Post-15 Agenda and why it is important for road safety to be on the agenda.

Podesta and Karman will answer questions about their work with the U.N. High-Level Panel and will provide an opportunity for youth to engage on the issues most pressing to them as the world moves into the next phase of global poverty eradication. The medium of the conversation will be English. 

Bringing Youth and Road Safety Issues to the Agenda
The statistics are clear and irrefutable, road traffic crashes are the single biggest killer of young people worldwide and is the leading health concern facing a future generation of world youth leaders.

Not only does road safety pose developmental problems, it affects ever element of economic growth. As young people passionate about road safety, it is clear that this issue must be bought to the agenda for the youth focus of the Post-2015 Agenda for global development.  

We therefore call upon our youth network for road safety to take part in this social media chat and bring road safety to the table for the Post-2015 Agenda.

We must bring attention to the facts that:

  • road traffic injuries are the No.1 killer of young people and this is unacceptable
  • this is a development issue, as it predominantly affects people in fast developing countries (low and middle-income)
  • every day hundreds of thousands of young people commute to school using dangerous roads, we do not want to die to get an education
  • the global road safety crisis needs a global solution and can only be tackled with a global cooperation
  • we, the young people, care about this issue, and road safety must be in the post-2015 agenda 

How to take part?
1)  Register to take part on the Google + Hangout page. You can also submit a question here 
2)  Submit questions in advance, to @JohnPodesta on twitter using #Youth2015. Or on his facebook Facebook page Or by email amalknecht@americanprogress.org

Announcing our new CORE Group member for the Russian Federation!

Announcing our new CORE Group member for the Russian Federation!

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

We are delghted to announce that YOURS has appointed a new CORE Group Member for the Russian Federation. Mr Alexander Revskiy (aged 28), who works for Road Safety Russia. The size of Russia makes it almost a continent in its self and while the country originally fell under our European remit, we have decided that appointing a country representative to navigage its vast geography will enable us to be closer to the region.

The CORE Group has a very important role within the Global Youth Network for Road Safety structure.  The CORE Group serve as the key representatives of the regions who coordinate YOURS’ presence in regions around the world as well reach out to young people all across the world in a two way dialogue.

The CORE group explain their roles and grouped them into three key areas of focus:

  1. The YOURS Global Youth Network for Road Safety: ‘To improve what we currently have’- to expand, share more information about youth and road safety projects and create a thriving quality network.

  2. Coordination and Guidance: ‘To improve what we currently do’- of youth and road safety initiatives in every region consisting of coordinating and guiding activities, YOURS capacity development programs and creating regional information hubs on youth and road safety activities.

  3. Advocacy and Promotion – ‘To be heard and seen more’ – for YOURS to have a known and heard network worldwide and to reach out to the media more frequently.

The Coordinators of the Regions (CORE) were selected via a rigorous recruitment process and we selected the following representatives from an incredibly competitive list of applicants. Mr Alexander Revskiy, currently working for Road Safety Russia, joins us as the the representative for the Russian Federation and helps us to reach out to the great initatives taking place throughout the country. We interviewed him below so you can find out more about him.

We always can start with ourselves. It’s in our power to make the roads of the whole world safe’ – Alexander Revskiy

Alexander, why are you passionate about road safety?
Working in this area, you have the opportunity to be actively involved in measures to save people from the effects of what is currently the world’s number one problem in terms of the numbers of lives lost and injuries sustained. Road safety is a sore point for Russia – despite modern, progressive roads legislation, despite the significant proportion of modern vehicles with passive safety systems and even though there is a functioning post-accident assistance system, almost 28,000 people die every year. That’s equivalent to the population of a small Russian town.

Apart from the social side, there is also an economic cost: Russia loses an estimated sum as a consequence of road traffic incidents.

How have you been involved in youth road safety in Russia?
Within the context of the public awareness campaigns run by our organisation, a great deal of effort goes into work with young people. This is partly because young people are one of the most vulnerable groups and also because they are the most receptive – changing the habits and influencing the behaviour of adults is much more difficult.  

We are delighted to share our experience with young people who want to get involved in tackling the problems of road safety in Russia. We provide support and bring together their best ideas, in order to make them as accessible and effective as possible on the vast scale of our country.   We are currently actively developing partnerships with a number of youth organisations, with the aim of joining forces with them to reduce accident rates on Russian roads.

What are your plans in your new role as CORE Group member for Russia?
As a member of the CORE Group I intend to inform the representatives of the different countries about new projects being implemented in Russia. I hope to share the expertise and experience of our organisation in running public awareness campaigns and to discuss the development of a youth road safety movement in Russia.

I will also feed back to Russia information about the work of YOURS, receive information about current road safety conditions and projects implemented in different countries and take the opportunity to gain tips and knowledge for effective development in the area of road safety.

An update from Kenya: Road safety passion still strong in our participants!

An update from Kenya: Road safety passion still strong in our participants!

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

It has been six months since we ran the full two week programme of the Training of Facilitators in Nairobi Kenya. The interactive, intensive and practical training gave 11 Kenyan leaders in road safety the opportunity to become trained facilitators and run training sessions with their peers on road safety risk factors facing them in their country. Now, six months on, we have reflect on the training and hear from a few of our participants.

In late 2012, YOURS trained 11 young leaders to become road safety facilitators.

Since the full Training of Facilitators in December 2012, many of our young leaders have either delivered a road safety training with their peers or are in the process of doing so! It is always inspiring to hear how the training impacted them and most recently, how they have put what they leaned into concrete action in the field.

Kenya Red Cross Society-RS10 Project – Road Safety Public Awareness Campaign Conducted in Naivasha District

9th June, 2013: The main objective of the initiative was to remind motorists, Boda Boda Riders, passengers and the public at large on the importance of Road Safety, latest amendments, traffic laws and regulations and share on the latest statistics on the Road Safety Project.

From January to July 2013, there have been 69 cases of reported Road Traffic Crashes in Naivasha Sub County, 19 of which were fatal. It was also relayed that all reported deaths were 20 years of age with all of them being male. At Kinungi Junction alone, they have so far reported 150 deaths of road users crossing the road on either direction.

It was due to such alarming statistics that KRCS, Traffic Police Department of Naivasha, Boda Boda Association, Matatu Association and community road safety committee took the initiative in reminding the public on the importance of adherence to the Road Traffic Laws and also in minimizing the number of RTC and in the end saving lives.

The team visited the three major matatu and boda boda stages in Naivasha where each department passed Road Safety messages to the drivers, riders, touts, passengers and the public.

Trained Facilitator: John Mikwabe of the Kenya Red Cross delivers road safety messages to his peers in Naivasha, Kenya.

Naivasha District has seen a reduction of 63% in Boda Boda related crashes and a 13% drop in the motor vehicle. This is a big difference since 2009 and since 2011 when the road safety project was launched in the district. The latest accidents have been between 7 and 9 pm which indicates less enforcement and lack of the speed gun as many motorists tend to speed during this hours. There is need of addressing this gap if accidents are to reduce.

John told YOURS:

For me personally,the YOURS training was the sparking plug that lit up my road safety torch. Everything was there but one element was missing and thanks to the YOURS training,the torch burns bright and the results are here.

Another trained facilitators, Mr Joel Njoroge has, since attending the training, been inspired to write two poems about the importance of road safety. We reproduce one of them here: 

Read more about our Training of Facilitators Kenya here

Brian’s Column: The ‘Marry Me’ trick to road safety funding

Brian’s Column: The ‘Marry Me’ trick to road safety funding

by | Dec 8, 2023 | News & Blog

In many parts of the world, coupling road safety with other occasions can offer a great opportunity for partnerships! In this column, Brian talks about joining forces with organizations around a time that they are drawing up their financial budgets and wanting to invest in youth orientated road safety work!

‘Safety is our concern and road safety is our religion! Hate us or love us, we’re African youth and shall keep the safety music not just playing but playing high! That’s a promise that we’re not afraid to make because we shall live up to expectations…’

Hello every one! Bonjour a tous! Your favorite Brian’s Column is back! J If you are reading this, you are alive! Bravo! You have survived the red eye of the bad-ghost of road carnage whose quest for lives on African roads has, since I was born, been hovering around, something that consequently forced you and I to join the road safety army! 

I don’t know very much what the Northern, Southern regions of Africa were up to in June, but I am well nformed of the big plans for Western and Southern Africa. It’s not that I got married to someone from West Africa but rather because from 10th June-18th June 2013, I found my way into the 28th First Aid Convention Europe in Wels, Austria and Mechelin, Belgium (Much respects to my sponsors, Uganda Red Cross + Belgium Red Cross).

My visit to Belgium visiting Mr Axl Druart – YOURS’ European CORE Group Coordinator

So, while in there, I came to meet one hell of a young man: Responsible Young Driver’s Axl Druart (who I can say is half Belgian & half African, because of his passion for Road Safety in Africa). He was (still is) the brain behind the Youth Caravane that took place in 7 western African countries. After learning about its philosophy and how big the next Caravan will be, I got kind of jealous (God forgive me, please) and since then I managed to persuade and force myself to organize an East African Caravane!

Now, this July, it’s the month of which many organizations and institutions in Africa are beginning plans for a new financial year. That means, without really serving you a lecture of economics, both the public and private partners are trying to plan and harmonize their financial plans. In other words, institutions are looking for ‘partners’ to marry! Many private institutions are looking at how they can get ‘married’ to other institutions to ensure that they (private partners) can have their work impact the local communities. If you think am kidding you (which I only do, when I am serious), visit the communication companies, banks etc as soon as now, and you will confirm your fears that these institutions are scratching their current bald work plans in search of a ‘marriage partner’. 

Use the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit to learn how to put a project proposal and plan together and go for it!

Now, if you or your youth organization is registered and recognized in your country, I dare you to visit and ask them the magical question of give words: ‘Will you marry me, please?’

The ‘Marry me’ trick  (I am not trying to be your love doctor here) works on the principle that one of the people intending to marry must be patient enough and hit the nail on the head when the other partner is, seemingly ready to take the relationship to the next level J (hahaha). That’s correct folks! At this time of the year, private institutions are very single, and they need serious relationship with serious partners! There couldn’t be any more serious partner than a road safety institution whose safety plans are inclusive of finger linking forthcoming events like Christmas (I love that season), Independence days (I know of 8 African countries celebrating independence days from now and December (hopefully there are no alien invasions like the film).

Part two and three of the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit focuses on project management and briefings to keep going. These can help you in approaching potential donors, funders and partners to support your projects. Read it online here.

These are platforms where these private partners would love to associate their work with your work, so there you go. Don’t be a scared! Go to your knees and pop the question 😛 I don’t need to wish you a ‘Good luck’ because the response is a crystal clear ‘YES’. Don’t worry, if the answer is no, the best thing about this proposal is that you can propose it to others too, maybe even a three or four way marriage! The point is, now is the time in Africa! 

This is also a request to decision makers to INVEST in young people’s road safety! We are the future and we want to play our part. Together, our marriage of partnership can be a strong one!

Until next time, STAY SAFE!