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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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: