The Training of Facilitators in Kenya is complete! – a milestone

The Training of Facilitators in Kenya is complete! – a milestone

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

From 26th November – 7th December 2012 YOURS brought together a group of passionate young Kenyans in Nairobi. The two weeks of intensive road safety training commenced and the young leaders were trained on a range of local road safety issues like: speeding, non-use of helmets and distracted driving. Further topics were communication and facilitation skills, evaluation methods and overall road safety knowledge. It is with great pleasure that we announce that all participants graduated from the course

All participants take moment for a picture with Dr Walter Odhiambo (Medical Students Association), Bright Oywaya (ASIRT Kenya), Liana Vetch (United Nations).

Against the beautiful and inspirational backdrop of the United Nations Office, 11 budding facilitators joined the YOURS team to undergo an unique programme that coupled evidence based road safety study, interactive learning with on the ground practical experience. This gave the participants a chance to truly develop into skilled youth advocates and peer educators for road safety.

This training provided the chance for young people on the ground and who witness the impacts of poor road safety standards in Kenya every day, to take action as powerful advocates and peer educators. Now the young Kenyans will begin their journey to run their own workshops across the breadth of Kenya. Together they will reach thousands of young people throughout their local communities and positively influence a generation of road safety conscious young people.

In our closing ceremony, our partners took a moment to reflect on the milestone of finishing the training and seeing their freshly trained young people.

Floor Lieshout, Director of YOURS said: “It is essential that we have more skilled and educated young people in the road safety field who can advocate for road safety. This training is a benchmark for us for future trainings and we realize once more that the local partners on the ground make the difference and make our work in reaching young people so much easier”.

Felistas N Kioko of the Kenya Red Cross came to observe the facilitators in action, she said:
“You have done a lot in a short period of time. The young people are the most affected group in Kenya in regards to road crashes and it is great to see you train advocates all under the age of 30. This is youth passing on the message to youth. They can make a big impact for road safety in Kenya. It is also good to see our young Kenyan Red Cross workers develop so much through your training. The training of facilitators is great”.

One of our participants, Boniface Ngria who is also behind Youths for Road Safety Kenya wrote in a fitting round-up of the training: “Finally the Youth Road Safety Facilitators Workshop came to an end yesterday. This, however, marked the commencement of the ripple effect since the graduands have now been released to different regions including, Nairobi area, Naivasha town, Thika town, Machakos town and Mombasa as well as to different organizations.

He continued, ‘With this diversity, the message can only go viral and hopefully the training will have the impact it was intended to achieve. The fact that the time of the training coincided with the transport crisis resulting from the ‘Matatu’ (PSV) operators strike in opposition to the just implemented New Traffic Act was indeed a blessing in disguise: nothing could have mirrored the magnitude of the problem at hand than this”.

He concluded, “The onus now is on the graduands to make proper use of the knowledge they have acquired to make the difference. Knowledge is never lost when shared but developed and matured! Go out there and do your best as that is not just the best but the only way of celebrating this milestone. Best of luck to you all and Bravo!!!

We are proud to announce the graduates with their certificates below!

Ms Sheila Atieno – Coordinator of the African Region Anglophone Countries (YOURS) and Youths for Road Safety Kenya

Mr Boniface Ngira – Youths for Road Safety Kenya

Ms Lucie Lucia – Kenya Red Cross Society

Mr Duncan Matheka – IPPNW

Ms Martha Wanjiro Wainaia – Youths for Road Safety Kenya

Mr Harrison Muiruri – ASIRT Kenya

Mr Isaac Ouma – Youths for Road Safety Kenya

Mr Joel Njoroge – Kenya Red Cross Society

Mr John Mwikwabe – Kenya Red Cross Society

Mr Kevin Ochieng – ASIRT Kenya

Mr Micheal Otieno – Kenya Red Cross Society

As we reach this great milestone, we use this training as a benchmark for further trainings around the world reaching more young people and creating a ripple effect of road safety action, advocacy and awareness all around the globe. More pictures, videos and testimonials are coming shortly! An official report will be published soon so stay tuned to the YOURS website.

Updates from the training of facilitators – Nairobi, Kenya

Updates from the training of facilitators – Nairobi, Kenya

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

After a week of road safety, peer education and facilitation theory in week one of the training of road safety facilitators in Kenya, week two is now in process to put theory into practice. The 11 facilitators from across Nairobi, who were specially selected via their respective organizations are in now in the phase of designing their own workshops to run with a group of young people tomorrow.

We rounded off week one with the young Kenyans who are part of our two week training program with a focus on three key risk factors which a prevalent in Kenya; Speeding, Non-Use of Helmets and Distracted Driving. The programme trains each young person to become a skilled road safety facilitator, peer educator and road safety advocate and after a week of intesive theory workshops, the flourishing facilitators are now putting theory into practise this week by designing their own road safety workshop sessions to run with a group of young people tomorrrow.

Yesterday, we ran a demonstration workshop with a group of 30 young volunteers from around Nairobi in collaboration with the Kenya Red Cross.

The demonstration workshop run by the YOURS team was set up to enable the facilitators to see all their facilitation theory into practise, to see how the workshop process runs in half a day and see how we want them to design and deliver their workshops. Today, the young peple gather back at the United Nations Office in Nairobi to start designing their own road safety workshops based on the road safety information they have learned.

Yesterday’s session focussed on the scope of the road safety session around the world and in Kenya followed by a focus on the key risk factor of non-helmet use in Kenya.

Manpreet Darroch, Communications Officer at YOURS said, ‘This training of facilitators is really unique. After a week of interactive workshops based on all elements of creating effective youth road safety facilitators, from how humans learn, to key facilitation skills right up to the current data on national Kenyan road traffic statistics, this week poses a real genuine challenge to the budding facilitators. Now they have to put all of their theory into practise, design their own sessions and run it with a group of young people tomorrow. What is unique about this programme is that its not just about creating knowledged youth road safety advocates, its about putting these young facilitators straight to work to educate and influence their peers and that is really exciting!’.

Sheila Atieno, our CORE Group Representative and participant in the training said, ‘I am extremely excited about the training. Having been a participant of this programme, week one focused on a range of important topics affecting the youth in Kenya such as the proper use of helmets, distracted driving and speed. I was very excited at how the workshops were structured using a logical and infomed process and I’m looking forward to running the workshops this week.’

Our youth facilitator Duncan Matheka observes a demonstration workshop.

We will be back to tell how the facilitators did in their first workshops this week so stay tuned!

Caravane Updates: Senegal – the Caravane completes its journey!

Caravane Updates: Senegal – the Caravane completes its journey!

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

The Caravane completed its journey across seven West African countries at the end of November reaching thousands of young Africans. The journey took place over a duration of 50 days and left Niger in October. Since then, it has been welcomed into the seven U.E.M.O.A countries who all undertook road safety action during its passing through prominent West African locations. Read about the closing ceremony of the Caravane!

DAKAR, SENEGAL: On November 24th and 25th, 2012

On Saturday 24th, the Caravanners arrived in Dakar, in Senegal, at around 8 am: Final City of their long journey through West Africa. After 45 days of travelling through more than 8.000 km, sensitizing thousand young people in every crossed country.

It is tired, but nevertheless very excited and always full of motivation, that they continue their mission in Dakar, where they organized, with the support of LASER International, a huge Closing Ceremony with the authorities of the country, the representatives of international institutions (e.g. WHO, the association of the disabled persons, etc.), their African and European colleagues, as well as the other Senegalese youngsters who especially came for the event. They also enjoyed from this opportunity to pay tribute to the Road Victims for World Day dedicated in their Remembrance.

On November 25th, marking their last official day of awareness raising of their peers, the Caravanners organized a football game at the Dakar Sacré-Coeur (DSC) with the Atlantic Bank team, as well as a concert of Daraa J, especially personalized for the Caravanners, where numerous youngsters spent the entire evening jumping and dancing on their awesome beats.

This Caravane is a real success, thanks to your precious support… YOU, all young people (African and European, TOGETHER) understood the this urge of reacting on this plague of road fatalities. As we can avoid it !!! Together we managed to mobilize the authorities of all these countries (by handing them the Youth Declaration). From now on, they are by our side to stop road crashes (which sadly remain the first worldwide cause of death among young people, in front of suicides, AIDS and the Malaria – at least and thankfully, WE do something about it), in order to reduce the number of victims by 50% before 2020.

You were more than 300.000 to read us every week during 2 months (in total gathering more than 1.400.000 views), with more than “7.000 Likes” on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/caravanedesjeunesUEMOA – in French). We sincerely thank you for it!

Now we must encourage those 36 young Caravanners, 36 heroes, on their way back to their respective countries (where they will arrive on December 1st), and wait for a 2nd edition in 2013.

Thank you again to all for your precious support,
See you very soon on the road, somewhere in Africa, or in Europe.

Sincerely yours,
THE CARAVANNERS

Read about the journey of the Caravane from start to finish here.

Interactive road safety workshops to train facilitators in full swing!

Interactive road safety workshops to train facilitators in full swing!

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

Since the Monday 26th November, the Training of Facilitators for Road Safety Workshops has tackled a whole host of road safety topics and brought our young participants into the field of facilitation to equip them with the skills and knowledge needed to run their own road safety workshops. The training is now on its fourth day and the participants have engaged with great motivation and determination since its start.

From how humans learn to peer education, from the fundamentals of a conducive human learning environment to why young people are at more risk on the road than any other age group. The training of facilitators is bringing 11 young Kenyan leaders into the road safety field to enable them to become better informed and skilled youth advocates and to run their own road safety workshops across Kenya.

The two week programme firstly focusses on road safety theory and has already tackled the fundamental elements, characteristics, pointers that road safety educators and advocators should possess. They have understood the key performances of good facilitation and grasped examples of bad facilitation actions. Alongside this, the young participants from around Kenya have also understood why young people are at particular risk of road traffic injuries relating their age, gender and inexperience as well as the broader scope road safety problem around the world. The participants then went on to understand the road safety crisis facing young people in Kenya and grasping the the statistics behind road deaths in Kenya. 

The learning wall displays the young facilitator’s work each day as they learn new concepts. The picture illustrates the young people’s understanding of how crashes happen in the context of the Haddon Matrix.

On Wednesday, Liana Vetch of the United Nations Environment Programme put the features of the road safety system in context with her presentation on the ‘Share the Road’ programme and opened dialogue with the young people on creating a safe infrastructure that enables safe routes. Share the Road is a UNEP initiative, developed with the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society.  It brings together the environment and safety agendas in the context of urban transport in the developing world where the majority, pedestrians and cyclists, are disadvantaged on the road.  The overall goal is to catalyse government and donor policies for systematic investments in walking and cycling road infrastructure. 

Liana Vetch of the UNEP gives a presentation to the young participants on the Share the Road Programme.

Next week, the training continues with practical testing of everything the young people have learnt in the week of theory. Today, they are undertaking a session of the key risk factor; helmets; speed and distracted driving and will design their own road safety workshops to run with the volunteers of the Kenya Red Cross – Karen Langata branch in which they will facilitate a workshop with 60 young Red Cross young affiliates.


We thank all our sponsors, especially The Road Safety Fund and Share the Road for making this Training possible and for believing in young people being part of the road safety solution.

YOURS begins training of facilitators in Nairobi, Kenya

YOURS begins training of facilitators in Nairobi, Kenya

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

Our training of facilitators for youth and road safety workshops has officialy begun in Nairobi, Kenya. The venue for the training is the United Nations Office in Nairobi and the beautiful campus is a fantastic backdrop for the empowering training that will train a group of young people in road safety. The training will empower the young youth leaders to become great youth advocates and learn among others how to run their own workshops across Kenya.

YOURS has began its training of faciliators in Nairobi, Kenya which will last for two weeks. The training is an intensive course that will train 11 young Kenyans in the road safety field to become great youth advocates. They will gain skills and knowledge about the key risk-factors Speed, Helmets and Distracted Driving. In addition they will learn the art of facilitation, communication skills, and how to design and run youth and road safety workshops across Kenya. The training comes alongside our Youth and Road Safety Action Kit and falls under YOURS’ Capacity Development Pillar of operations.

The training is oritentated around four key learning outcomes:

  1. Explain how road traffic injuries take place and what puts young people at particlular risk for road traffic injuries.
  2. Identify key risk factos in your country and explain how they cancontribute to road traffic injuries.
  3. Utilizise peer education and active learning methodlogies to design Youth and Road Safety Workshops to develop the capacities of young people in their country.
  4. Organize and deliver Youth and Road Safety Workshops based on the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit.

In week one, the training of facilitators will undergo theory on road safety via interactive learning. This includes sessions of the scope of the road safet problem, youth and road traffic injuries in Kenya, how humans learn, the role of faciliators, peer education and a focus on road safety risk factors; speed, non-helmet use and distracted driving which are prevalent in Kenya.

YOURS thanks all sponsors and local partners. Especially we would like to thank the United Nations Environmental Programme for hosting the event and the Road Safety Fund for their sponsorship of the training! Stay tuned for more updates, videos, clips and testimonials from the training.

Brian’s Column: Africa Commemorates WDR – who won?

Brian’s Column: Africa Commemorates WDR – who won?

by | Dec 5, 2023 | News & Blog

Brian, in his usual style gives us the latest in the field of youth and road safety initiatives in Africa! This month, Brian’s focus is on the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and its commemoration across Africa. He observes that the day was wholeheartedly embraced across the region and he give us a synopsis of road safety action across Africa.

Hello! Bonjour! If you haven’t heard about it, you gotta check your pulse right now, because you may be dead! The date was Sunday, 18th November 2012. Yeah, we talk about ‘dates’ and you guys are already thinking of ‘dating’, ‘birthdays’…to some, ‘Christmas’…hahaha, I got you no? We are talking about the World Day for Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims. Ladies & gentlemen, Brian’s Column- your Africa update road safety column is here! Please be seated! I thank you…

For generations, I have not seen a day (except Christmas & Eid el Fitri) celebrated across Africa with soooo much solidarity, passion, flair, culture and modernity than the World Day for Remembrance of Road Traffic Victims! Yes…! You couldn’t miss the sight of regional/provincial/district traffic officers during the whole event. In fact, one would wonder why all of a sudden, we are finding it easier to persuade the government’s traffic department to actively participate in road safety activities. Could it be because African country governments want to show to the masses that they care considering that many countries will be voting their next presidents in a few years time? Wait a minute, or couldn’t it be that, the governments have seen the private sector partnering with the local advocacy NGOs on road safety to make our roads and road users safe?…something that is the work of our governments? Leave alone, the government talk! Let’s get to the core! Are you ready for your flights? Allons-y!

Read about the Gambian action for the World Day of Remembrance here.

West Africa could be that region of the continent that could have won the most active-region award during the commemoration of World Day of Remembrance for Road traffic victims! The Gambian Youth through the National Youth Parliament among other activities took to the media and made a press release calling for everyone to be safe on the roads. Benin (Alignon), Niger (ONG Fondei Ma Bori), Mali (Mali Youth Association), Ivory coast (Fondation Djigui La Grande Esoerance) , Togo, Cameroun (Securoute Afrique) and Nigeria (Federal Road Safety Corps) have a track record of very active youth led organizations in road safety! You can visit their official websites for the news bulletins. Truthfully, they don’t surprise us for the awesome work they are doing! We can only say…keep the candle burning comrades!!!!!! Tres bien! Tres bien

In Namibia Save Zambia’s RRTV day theme, GRSP-Za & Bridge Stone Awareness Team in Johannesburg

Let’s go to Southern Africa!  As usual, South Africa and Namibia through the Namibian Road Safety Fund National Road Safety Council (Namibia) held the most attended to remembrance sessions. SAVE Zambia conducted an awareness session with young people deciding to act because they are the most vulnerable!

The events commemorated in Egypy, Somalia, and Ethiopia.

Coming to North Africa…Egypt’s youthful radio presenter and road safety advocate Mohhammen Yassin held a record of three-hour 4 public talk shows…which according to his page Road Safety in Egypt – أمان الطريق في مصر, reached out to 3500 people! Don’t you want to clap your hands for this 29 year old? In Ethiopia (another country where I’m going to be based for the next 1 year), young people in Addis Ababa under the Yala Youths Association used a cultural approach to awareness. They offered a free theatre-show that portrayed road safety victims as people who are our heroes and should motivate us for greater heights. The function was presided over by the provincial safety coordinator- a representative of the president in the province. Sudan held its first ever national road safety event by launching and freely airing the ‘Drive Safely’ movie directed and staring young women-something that has never happened before! This was calling for male drivers to be mindful and remember they have a family to take care of! What an event? Shukrannn to the Arab family and KIA motors! And for those who thought Somalia is only a battlefield, no thanks. Through the Mogadishu Youth Association and Mogadishu Metropolitan Traffic Police, a colourful ceremony was held to create awareness on keeping and observing the high way code on the now good looking city of Mogadishu! We can expect a lot from this country!

Event in Kenya (left), Right in Uganda (A volunteer gives out a ‘Speeding Kills’ brochure to motorcyclist.

The flight tour ends in eastern Africa where Kenya Red Cross, YOURS-Kenya in partnership with the local traffic police conducted a safety drive along the busy streets of Nairobi! In Uganda, the Red Cross in Mbarara organized an awareness stakeholders meeting that was attended to by 122 delegates drawn from communication companies, NGOs and the government from western Uganda. This was an initiative to make the day more known to the stakeholders. In Tanzania, a group of students from University of Dar –es-salaam decided to re-paint a zebra crossing at their university. In Rwanda- the only country where a citizen can arrest a reckless driver, there was an awareness workshop in their Capital Kigali. The minister of transport was the guest of honor for the training workshop that attracted 222 delegates including motorcycle drivers associations. 

Clearly, you could see that more and more countries are beginning to realize the importance of ‘getting the road safety message to the community’ through various approaches of media, matches, cultural dances etc. That’s one area that has improved very fast. You also realize that, the implementing bodies have also begun to ‘partner’ with the road users, the government bodies and the private institutions! And most importantly, using the ‘peer’ approach in sending road safety messages home.

We (as Africa) are not perfect yet, in fact, there are still more gaps than they are in the mouth of a 90 year old, but we can keep our heads up considering the achievements that the continent is making. I didn’t forget to say that, a generation of young leaders in road safety is masterminding these road safety initiatives in Africa. Much respects to #YOURS But who won? I am not sorry for keeping you waiting to answer this question! Ha-ha…but as you know, one of the indicators of effectiveness of any intervention is the impact that it does and how sustainable it is. I am afraid we gonna have the results next year, same time…don’t kill me now!  (Waves) Until next time…#STAYSAFE