The Caravane which has been on its road safety mission since its launch on the 15th October 2012 has completed the fifth leg of its journey as it passed through the Ivory Coast once again greeted by thousands of young Africans and sensitizing them on road safety issues across Africa. There are now only two more countries left to visit; Mali and Senegal before the Caravane concludes its journey and completes its mission! Read about action in the Ivory Coast.

The Caravane crosses the Ivory Coast border and is brought in to Yamoussoukro on Wednesday 7th of November, at 10 pm, just leaving time to the Caravanners to take a good night rest to manage all foreseen activities in the country.

On Thursday, from 8 am till 11:30 am, the whole team had the opportunity to visit the famous Caimans’ Lake as a reward for all accomplished efforts travelling with the Caravane until here, already crossing 4 countries.

And on November 8th, 2012, the Caravanners could enjoy some spiritual time at the famous Basilica “Notre-Dame de la Paix” of Yamoussoukro.

As soon as the Caravane arrived on the Highway of Abidjan, the Caravanners were welcomed and escorted by the Diplomatic Police of the BSP (Brigade of Surveillance for Personalities) to Grand-Bassam.

On the third day, new communication visuals have been edited in order to distribute them and inform hundreds of youngsters on various road safety topics. And, in order to officialise each Caravanner’s participation, personalized badges have been confected and provided to the whole Caravane crew, as well as new “awareness” t-shirts putting the following message across: “Road crashes killed too many people, and keep on killing. It is time to take action!”.

Click on the leaflets to view them.

In Abidjan, the Launch Ceremony of the Caravane was held in the hotel of the district of the Plateau. As main attendants, we could benefit from the presence of the President of the Road Terminals of the coasts of the Ivory Coast, of the representative of the Ministry of Transport M. Diabaté, of the representative of the Road Safety Office Director (called OSER), and of course, of the Coordinator of OJISER: Mrs Mafe Koneferi.

The African Youth Declaration was given to the representative of the Minister of Transport, with a lot of emotion and many hopes for years to come.

On November 10th, 2012, all the Caravanners went to the Road Terminal “Gbêba” of Adjamé in order to make aware drivers of “gbaka” (mini bus) and “wôrô wôro” (municipal taxis) with the precious help of the Mayor of Adjamé, M.SYLLA Youssouf, and the President of the National Coordination of the Road Terminals of Ivory Coast (CNGRCI).

This ceremony took place in the presence of the agents of the national police force and the Firemen brigades. At the end of the ceremony the Mayor came down in these Road Terminals, with the Caravanners, to sensitise all drivers on the major road safety issues, to distribute leaflets and to stick reflective stickers on vehicles.

The Caravane continues its journey having just completed the third and fourth leg of its journey through Togo and Burkina Faso. The Caravane has already greeted over 10,000 young people in four countries of West Africa and it continues its journey in the Ivory Coast tomorrow. Read about the events and initiatives that took place in Togo and Burkina Faso here.

This ceremony was highlighted by the African Youth Declaration for Road Safety, which was personally given to the representative of the Minister of Transport, Colonel Essowè BAOUNA, Director of Roads and Railroads Transports in Togo. The Caravanners also honoured the presence of a representative of the WHO (World Health Organization) in Togo.

Throughout their 7-days journey in Togo, the caravanners had the opportunity to participate in the famous prayer of Tabaski, as well as to relax from their awareness activities with all distributed tools (AlcoVision Goggles, Distract-A-Match Game, Egg’s Helmet, etc.) with other local youngsters, on the beach of Lomé.

On Friday, 2nd of November 2012, Burkina Faso, now in turn welcomes the Caravane in the city of Koupela (selected city for the launch of the Caravane’s activities in the country).

Arriving at approximately 2:00 pm, the 18 young caravanners (10 from Niger, 4 from Benin, 4 of Togo and 3 technicians) were very excited to discover this new country to sensitize its youngsters.

The activities of this day were essentially punctuated with the courtesy visits to the authorities within the framework of the Launch Ceremony, by providing them with the African Youth Declaration, and asking them to commit. The Caravanners could therefore meet: the Traditional Leader – Naaba YEMDE, a delegation of the City Hall of Koupela, and the Police. These visits were the opportunity to present them the various points highlighted by the Declaration, and to achieve the Caravane’s purpose to inform and make the population and youngsters aware of the risks of bad driving behaviours and the dangers met in traffic. See more photos from Togo in the right column gallery.

Then, the Caravane left Koupela at around 7:00 pm for the capital city of Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou.

The 2^nd day (3^rd November), in Burkina Faso, was punctuated by two main activities: a raising awareness action in the School Complex called “Saint Viateur”, and of a guided tour in the International Crafts Fair of Ouagadougou.

The first one attracted lots of youngsters, mainly high school students (Sophomores to Seniors). This activity allowed to show these youngsters the importance of wearing a helmet in traffic. Through educational yet entertaining games, we proved them the necessity of NOT driving under the influence of alcohol, which can seriously endanger not only their life, but others’ life as well. Finally, posters were set within the establishment and reflective stickers were distributed to all students.

On November 4th in Ouagadougou, the Caravanners were warmly received by the Burkinabe government and proceeded to the delivery of the African Youth Declaration for Road safety to the Minister of Transport. This latter welcomed us in restricted audience with the media, and enjoyed a photo-shooting with the youngsters. Until the rest of the Caravane’s journey on the Burkinabe territory, several activities took place in schools, on the streets, and in youngsters recreational settings. The Caravane left Burkina Faso on the 7th of November, happy of its huge success, to go sensitize youngsters from the Ivory Coast…

The Caravane continues its journey into the Ivory Coast! Read more about Caravane here.

Brian recently took it upon himself to put youth and road safety on the agenda at the 2nd Southern Africa Conference on Road Safety which took place on the 23rd-24th October 2012. During his journey in South Africa, Brian reflected on the many messages picked up from various organizations, initiatives and delegates at the event and beyond. This poignant account illustrates the power of youth in making a difference in road safety. Check it out now!

Hoooooray! It’s been long since we last communicated, really long indeed. I know lots of stuff has been happening regarding road safety in Africa. Much love and respects to the Francophone colleagues who kick started the ‘Youth Caravane’ and the Africa Youth Declaration on Road Safety. You can read (if you haven’t) more information about these awesome road safety initiatives here. Big shout outs there!

Back to me, Africa decision makers, public, and private organizations seem to have found their glasses and realized that they need to put young people in the driving seat of road safety programmes, they have realized that this is the way to go! In this release, I share my experience following a not-for-tourism trip to South Africa.

Ok, here we go…so, I was accepted by the government of South Africa through the South African Road Safety Federation (SARF) to attend and present my paper on ‘Prehospital Emergency Care-Why young people are a magic pill’ at the 2^nd Southern Africa Conference on Road Safety (23^rd-24^th October 2012) that was held in the handsome (sorry girls) city of Johannesburg-Birchwood Conference Centre to be precise. There, I give you yet another way of finding your way into must-to-attend conferences! lol

In my presentation, I highlighted the need for empowering young leaders with ‘pre-hospital skill care’ in a developing continent where response time is above 10 minutes. Young people are heavily hit by road crashes (note that it’s no longer called road accidents) and to build a generation of young road safety advocates- YOURS was born (2007) and so did the African Youth Network on Road Safety formed (2011)

This conference reflected a sheer touch of representation, effective participation and passion southern African countries have with regards to all the pillars of road safety as stated in the UN Decade of action. Speaking at the opening of the conference, the acting CEO of Road Traffic Management Corporation (who represented the Minister of Transport) Collins Letsoalo offered a rather cautious comment to delegates stating ‘…if you have come here like some sort of vacation, break from office, then you should go back home before we start’, a statement that eased the mood in the conference room.

To me, it showed how committed and important this conference was. He continued, “Southern Africans are not doing the simplest of things, like wearing a seatbelt and they don’t see it as a problem. It has been proven that if we can increase our seatbelt wearing rate to double what we have now, we would have a 30 percent reduction in road fatalities,” While presenting to conference delegates South Africa’s strategy to reduce road fatalities by 20 percent a year, Mr. Letsoalo said in November, the strategy will be released for public comment. He also said other countries had done the simplest of things to reduce road crashes and that was to give focus to drunk driving and seatbelt usage. Speeding, drunk driving, and failure to wear seatbelts and helmets remained a critical challenge for South African authorities.

The issue of road safety could no longer be left to government authorities alone. “We have reached that stage now where we are calling on society to work with us; it can’t be a government thing. People need to understand that if they behave this way and continue to do so, they are likely to lose their lives.” Communities, Letsoalo said, needed to understand that “today it can be me and you and tomorrow it will be somebody else.” 

I compare this conference against a number of conferences that have been characterized by trademark hell of presentations from ‘technocrats’ and less discussions from the ‘community’. This was a different one! The South African Road Safety Federation struggled so hard to ensure that they fixed me (a youth representative from outside South Africa) to present at this conference. There were also young people from different disciplines of Engineering, Communications, Business and Management from a number of NGOs, Universities and Research Institutions. When I interacted with them, they told me that they had been enabled to be at this conference thanks to their respective organizations. One told me ‘We asked our CEO why we wouldn’t be at the conference, and the CEO asked us why we didn’t want to go…he paid the registration fee and we couldn’t wait to be here’.

Now, that’s liver-touching! Its hardcore dedication! Its passion. Finally, we are coming to see a generation public private partners coming out and ready to support organized groups of young people! There were insightful separate discussions which gave birth to new ideas, best practices especially in behavioral road safety. One big lesson learnt was the need for implementing bodies to ensure ‘Smarter communications’ between themselves, the beneficiaries and the government to avoid duplication of work and effective planning.

I compare this conference against a number of conferences that have been characterized by trademark hell of presentations from ‘technocrats’ and less discussions from the ‘community’. This was a different one! The South African Road Safety Federation struggled so hard to ensure that they fixed me (a youth representative from outside South Africa) to present at this conference. There were also young people from different disciplines of Engineering, Communications, Business and Management from a number of NGOs, Universities and Research Institutions. When I interacted with them, they told me that they had been enabled to be at this conference thanks to their respective organizations. One told me ‘We asked our CEO why we wouldn’t be at the conference, and the CEO asked us why we didn’t want to go…he paid the registration fee and we couldn’t wait to be here’.

Now, that’s liver-touching! Its hardcore dedication! Its passion. Finally, we are coming to see a generation public private partners coming out and ready to support organized groups of young people! There were insightful separate discussions which gave birth to new ideas, best practices especially in behavioral road safety. One big lesson learnt was the need for implementing bodies to ensure ‘Smarter communications’ between themselves, the beneficiaries and the government to avoid duplication of work and effective planning.

At this event, you could see that corporate organizations can do even more because they are most trusted by the community and road users. I had a chance to share my experience of ‘almost’ loosing my father to a road traffic crash as an 11 year old first born, at a crucial time when I was doing my final examinations for primary education, the economic implications of what it would have meant to my family. I was greatly impressed with the talent of using drama to influence behavior of road users and there is no doubt that young people love it! I saw that, road safety rap would be more ideal for the ‘modern trendy young person’.

Like the CEO of Bakwena said, ‘Young people are our past, our present and our future. They are however the most hit bracket when it comes to road traffic crashes. It remains only ethical for us as NGOs, government, decision makers and cooperate bodies to make a contribution in saving our children. Road traffic crashes don’t segregate, today it’s your son, tomorrow it’s my daughter!’ Now, that’s one clear message. Isn’t it? Oh, wait…did I say that, I also had a chance to visit a cultural museum, seeing around, but that’s another story haha!

Till next time…Stay Safe!