In the winter period, most of the Northern Hemisphere is covered by snow and icy conditions, afterall many of us are ‘Dreaming of a white Christmas’ and white blankets of snow is the youthful preamble for snowmen, snowball fights, snow angels and wonderful memories immortalized in winter photo snaps.

Many of us are enjoying the festive period by coming home from university, college or home from work and will sit back at enjoy the winter party season with a few drinks (if you are that way inclined) and spending time catching up with friends and family. Here at YOURS, we are young people ourselves and we know that at this time, inhibitions are often lower than the rest of the year, kisses are claimed under the mistletoe and young people everywhere will be toasting to the new year ahead, so why let this happy period go sour?

In many countries around the world, the month of December constitutes one of the worst months for road traffic crashes with more crashes happening in this month alone than in the rest of the year. Why is this? There are increased cases of drink driving, drunk pedestrians, crashes related to poor road conditions and lots of other issues making road crashes more prevalent during this season. We don’t want to bring the happy spirits down but we do want preserve life and reduce road crashes! With this in mind, you can follow simple tips to ensure the holiday period continues without the tragic loss of life or serious injuries…keep safe this season to enjoy the year ahead!

During the winter period, there is often more traffic on the roads and as drivers you should: 

• Always prepare yourself before traveling by using a serviced car that is suitable for the road
• Ensure your car is fit for the road, check your battery and anti-freeze levels
• Think about your journey before you leave and incorporate rest breaks to combat fatigue
• During bad weather conditions, you should be prepared in case of a breakdown with extra clothing, blanket, torch and so forth
• Always follow your nation’s safety rules in case of a breakdown
• Leave extra distance from vehicles in bad driving conditions (icy, rainy, muddy etc)
• Leave extra time for your journey and drive slower in bad driving conditions

Whether you are a driver or not, you can increase your safety by ensuring:

• As a pedestrian, using reflective clothing in reduced light conditions and not being distracted
• As a two-wheel driver, ensuring you can be seen and always wear a helmet
• The driver never speeds and observes the safety rules
• All occupants of the car wear a seat belt
• The driver never drives tired and encourage regular breaks from driving
• The driver is not distracted
• Never ever drink and drive or drive under the influence of drugs 

This year, if you are driving, why not try ‘Mocktails’ instead of cocktails? They are alcohol free and you should definitely not drive under the influence of alcohol at all!

We wish everybody a very happy holiday season and hope you will all commit to road safety during this challenging driving period. Remember, road safety is not just important during the winter period, it is important all year round. We as young people embrace life and commit to road safety, just like our 2011 campaign, so continue to enjoy your life into the new year by being a road safety ambassador and protecting your loved ones and each other!

As you may have heard, I (Public Health Freak, Brian) will, starting from now, officially be sharing the African road safety cake from a youth and technical perspective thanks to YOURS. In other words, for my fellow youths whose first kiss was to miss road safety, I suggest you start sending me your addresses so I can quench your thirst (read hunger) from all corners of the incredible Africa! #MuchRespect!

Pretending to be a priest (which I should have been if only I had not been expelled from seminary on grounds that I was asking ‘a lot of questions’), Christmas is celebrated throughout the African continent by Christian communities large and small and people enjoy the holiday season. It is arguably, the most celebrated day in Africa! There are approximately 350 million Christians in Africa, and of course that includes myself, but with Muslim roots, I also celebrate the Muslims’ all time day ‘Ramadan’. Back to the point, on Christmas day carols are sung from Ghana on down to South Africa, from Equatorial Guinea to Kenya. Meats are roasted at Christmas dinner, Christmas decorations and carols are held, gifts are exchanged, family visits made and needless to mention, God has a chance to see unfamiliar faces in His churches on this special period. The Coptic Christians in Ethiopia and Egypt celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December in their calendar, which is the 7th of January for most of the rest of us. Even in some of Africa’s predominantly Muslim countries, Christmas is still marked for celebration. I am reliably informed that in  Dakar and Niamey (where we were this year, October) for the first African Youth Assembly on road safety, street-sellers are happy to sell plastic trees and inflatable Santas.

During this Christmas period, there is a lot of excitement and as many of you will agree with me, this is for many the right time to taste a few drinks (winks), it’s a time to meet new faces, it’s a time to catch a new movie that is sending your fight or flight hormone to abnormal heights, this is the same time that we stay out late…you know, trying out new things. It is practically the end of the year, and you want to leave a mark and start the next year on your right foot!

However, and rather interesting, to do so and participate fully in this period, one has to be alive. To remind you of the figures, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.3 million people are killed annually and up to 50 million people are injured annually due to road traffic crashes. 90% of all of the world’s road fatalities (which can be preventable) take place in low and middle income countries. However, the low and middle income countries do not even own half of the world’s vehicles – this fact alone is very intriguing and telling and I am not being political here! This is a human being issue. To make it worse, road traffic injuries (RTI)Is are the leading cause of deaths among the people aged under 29! Now, if someone calculates what the technocrats call ‘Dalys & Qalys´, that shouldn’t scare you: they mean the amount of money that road traffic injuries are costing our society (loss of productive years, health care, etc.) . The global losses due to RTIs are estimated to be US$ 513 billion and cost governments between 1 and 3 % of their gross national product – more than the total amount that these countries receive in development assistance!

So, as we prepare for Christmas, how about putting safety shopping on the agenda. On parties, you can expect some common emergencies as chocking, unconsciousness, drowning etc (so make sure you put to use your first aid skills) and try to prevent these tragedies. While on the road, you will need some visible clothes with reflectors so you can easily be seen from a distance by dreaded drunk drivers, for those that use motorbikes don’t for any excuse abandon a helmet! (there is more than enough proof to justify the effectiveness of helmets), When in the car, remember, there was a point why seat belts were put in the car. In addition, please never drink and drive! Make safety your number 1 priority because you are very much expected home alive!

On such arenas, I have not heard someone proposing a toast to driving safely and observing pedestrian safety. On the religious angle, in the villages of the Central African Republic, like in other strong African cultures, the first drink is poured into the soil as part of paying homage to the Gods: -so that the Gods can bless them and the party….but how about also adding that the Gods should also help us to stay safe?

While I was in Denmark in 2009, I had a ‘quick’ conversation with one of the students at Frisenborg, and he told me that, ‘In Africa, you dudes care about one another. Here, it´s different, we call it respect and every one is on his own’. This later became one of my best change phrases as far as social life and solidarity is concerned. If you relate this to safety in general, then, by caring for each other, the taxi driver being aware of his safety and the safety of his passengers and pedestrians. Also the passengers are being mindful and reminding their fellow passengers to buckle up their seat belts…every one playing their role, wouldn’t we reduce road carnage in our lands?

I have heard about the always polio-infested excuse of ‘We are poor’…but are we really that poor? How much shillings, Kwachas, Dollars would be raised on a Christmas fundraising dinner in your home district? Come on now, I personally have visited our local TV and they have given us, free time to run a safety campaign during this Christmas! Young people, it´s our time, we are the people very much affected by the mess that our forefathers created, but IT IS part of our responsibility to solve this mess. The good news is, the grounds are fertile, let us make Youth Safety our concern and do something nw with all traits of the Haddon Matrix! Oh, and I will be looking forward to what you did in reference to road safety during the Christmas season ;).

I was watching some cartoons on our local TV in Uganda when one of the cartoons asked: -Question: When does a person decide to become a Safety Manager?

Answer: When he realizes he doesn’t have the charisma to be an undertaker. Me and you know this very well, technocrats call it ‘peer group influence’, but for us (youths) we call it ‘Blending in the Hood’. Be wise enough to make safety decisions when such matters arise! Did I also say, procure a first aid kit and make a bandage and razor blade key items in your kit?

Stay Safe because road fatalities are more dangerous than malaria and HIV/AIDS. I am going to say merry Christmas in quite a number of African Languages!

In Runyankole (Uganda) Mugire Kurisimaasi y’eihorere
In Luganda (Uganda) Mbagariiza Kurisimaasi enungyi
In Amharic (Ethiopia) Melkam Yelidet Beaal
In Egyptian (Egypt) Colo sana wintom tiebeen
In Yoruba (Nigeria) E ku odun, e hu iye’ dun!
In French (Congo& Rwanda) Joyeux Noel
In Akan (Ghana) Afishapa
In Zimbabwe Merry Kisimusi
In Afrikaans (South Africa) Geseënde Kersfees
In Zulu (South Africa) Sinifisela Ukhisimusi Omuhle
In Swazi (Swaziland) Sinifisela Khisimusi Lomuhle
In Sotho (Lesthoto) Matswalo a Morena a Mabotse
In Swahili (Tanzania, Kenya) Kuwa na Krismasi njema

Brian Bilal Mwebaze, a national of Uganda will be joining YOURS to give an international audience to his views on the road safety situation in Africa as well as top tips on how to work more effectively for road safety. Brian has a youthful and engaging tone and has been writing about his work in road safety and public health concerns on his blog. We loved his candid style so much that we thought it would be a fantastic idea to give Brian a regular column at YOURS!

Brian’s Biography
Brian K M. Bilal better known by his first name *Brian*  is a 25 year old Public Health Youth Specialist, with a high zeal and zap in youths participation and involvement in community, national and international matters of Youth Sexual & Reproductive Health, Environment and his all time passion Road Safety and First Aid. Brian has been in the road safety arena since 2000 as an adolescent when his father survived a fatal motor accident but sustained a left leg disability and eye sight loss.

He joined and headed the local school Red Cross group which experience would help him be appointed while at Mbarara University of Science & Technology as the ‘Road Safety Campus Coordinator’- a very prestigious position that saw him plan and implement a number of road safety projects in the 6 public campuses in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. He won the East Africa Road Safety Campus Youth Award. His achievements were recognized by the International Red Cross through the Uganda Red Cross Society which sponsored him to be trained as an Emergence Medical Technician-Intermediate/ Road Safety Trainer at the famous Magen David Adome, Israel. He would later come back on an exchange programme to Denmark under the Danish Red Cross Youth where he was part of the team that implemented the ‘School to School Project’ in 4 Danish Schools and 4 Ugandan Schools: an experience that helped him understand and appreciate road safety in a developing and developed country

Brian is also the vice president of the African Youth Network on Road Safety-a network of 30+ youth organisations working on road safety in Africa. On 11.11.11, he was voted the Communications Officer for the Africa NGO Network on Road Safety:-a network of national organisations working in road safety arena in Africa.

Currently the Public Health Youth Advisor for the Red Cross, and Youth representative to Uganda National Safety Working Group Brian advises on what he calls ‘The 3 Women of His Life’ which is First Aid & Road safety programmes, youth sexual and reproductive health programmes and the environment as regards to design, monitoring and evaluation and needless to mention, advocacy

While not reading and writing about and to ‘‘The 3 Women of His Life’, Brian is a freestyle soccer player, rice glutton, a certified movie addict, factual and ardent fan of ‘Take That Rock Band’. Brian also has a BSc., A Master of Public Health and is almost Doctorate Student of Public Health at University of Sydney.

YOURS is looking forward to publishing Brian’s regular column so stay tuned and be sure to check his blog out shortly!

Our worskhop coupled fun with serious learning to create an engaging atmosphere of learning.

YOURS then encouraged young people to write down their personal action plans to commit to road safety beyond the workshop. The young people not only pledged to be safer but also said that they wanted to share the road safety message with their peers as well as not speed, encourage safer driving amongst family and friends as well as many other personal road safety commitments.

The young people told YOURS: ‘This workshop was really important and really fun, I learnt a lot and my attitude towards the road has changed’. A video report with testimonials is now available to view on the right column of this page!

YOURS will also provide an evaluative report shortly. As YOURS moves forward into 2012, our focus on global workshops will continue!

YOURS thanks Brand Oman and the organizers of the Muscat Youth Summit for their commitment to road.