When the World Crossing Campaign completed, the panel of judges at YOURS had a hard time choosing the best video to award €1000 for the implementation of a road safety project. However, when we watched Mr Siakka K Dibba’s videos, it was clear through his professionalism, dedication and creativity that the fund would be going to the right place.

Since the World Crossing Campaign, Mr Dibba, who was awarded the prize has been in correspondence with the National Youth Parliament of the Gambia. Our representative, Mr Ousman Conteh (An Honourable Member of the NYG) set up the initial correspondence to oversee the implementation of Mr Dibba’s road safety project.

The project, entitled, ‘Changing Minds – Saving Lives’ is a partnership between the National Youth Commission of Gambia Red Cross Society and the National Youth Parliament of the Gambia. The project aims to tackle the growing road safety problem in the Gambia with road traffic crashes at an all time high (Gambia Hazard Profile, 2005) and basic problems are seen to be the main cause of injury and death. These are identified as the lack of seatbelt usage, helmet usage, excessive speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and using mobile phones during driving.

The project will organize a week long media campaign on both print and electronic media, school tour and road safety training.

Media Campaign/outreach

Key messages will be developed and distributed to the print media. Radio and TV panel talk shows will also be organized geared towards raising awareness on road safety issues and this will provide the public with the opportunity to participate.

School Tour/outreach

2 Senior and 1 Junior Secondary Schools will be targeted to make public speeches during their assemblies or break time periods on issues pertaining to Road Safety. This will help to raise the level of awareness of student on the causes and precautionary measures to be taken to avert Road Traffic Crashes.

Road safety capacity building training and symposium

Road safety capacity building training will be organized, for the membership of the partnership organization, youth leaders, students and young journalist within the Greater Banjul area. This will help to build the capacity of young people who have very little knowledge on road safety since this will be the first ever training on road safety in The Gambia.

There will be a symposium at the end of the training were representatives from the WHO office in The Gambia, National Road Authority and other key stakeholders will make statement on road safety. Young people will also make recommendations as to how road traffic crash can be adverted in The Gambia.

YOURS wholeheartedly supports the project and knows it will be a great success. We are amazed at how far the prize money will go and look forward to reporting on the project’s successful implementation.

In our first edition, we focus on Chariots of Destiny:

The Chariots of Destiny Organization is a non-governmental organization based in Nairobi Kenya founded to advocate for road safety both nationally and internationally. COD was founded by Ms. Casey Marenge in 2007 inspired after she was involved in a tragic road crash which left her paralyzed and a wheelchair user.

Since its inception COD has been involved in a number of successful campaigns and conferences including the first ever global ministerial Road safety conference held in Moscow, Russia where Ms. Casey was honored to present to over 1500 delegates present highlighting on the effects of road crashes to road crash victims and their families. The Chariots of Destiny Organization was also responsible for launching the Make Roads Safe campaign in Nairobi as well as neighboring towns. COD is currently working on launching a mentorship program in different universities in Nairobi to mentor young individuals on the importance of road safety and the dangers of reckless driving .

YOURS and Chariots of Destiny are excited to be mapping and scoping potential collaborations in the field of young people and road safety. COD, is under the leadership of Casey Marenge and YOURS is both moved an honored that such a courageous woman, once a victim of a road crash herself is now working to ensure this kind of injury is minimized in her country. It is stories like these that really inspire action and we at YOURS are inspired to be working alongside Casey in our mission for safer roads everywhere.

To find out more about the Chariots of Destiny Organization click here www.chariotsofdestiny.org.

Manpreet Darroch, the founder of the Tune into Traffic Campaign which is innovating road safety amongst young people in the United Kingdom was among 20 outstanding young social entrepreneurs selected as 2010 YouthActionNet® Fellows. Launched in 2001 by the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Nokia, YouthActionNet® seeks to develop a new generation of socially conscious global citizens who create positive change in their communities, their countries, and the world.

Manpreet who is also YOURS’ Communications Officer was recognized at an awards ceremony held at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC on October 6. The awards were presented by Nobel Laureate Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, Finnish Ambassador to the U.S. Pekka Lintu, and Kirsi Sormunen, Vice President of Sustainability at Nokia.

“YouthActionNet® was created in the belief that an emerging movement of young change-makers has the power to deliver transformative innovations,” said William S. Reese, President and CEO of IYF, which supports programs that help youth obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, and improve their communities. “With each class of Fellows, our vision is reaffirmed. From employing low-income youth in Ghana to build bicycles out of bamboo to enabling individuals with disabilities to express their creativity using robotic devices, the 2010 Fellows offer solutions to a range of pressing needs.”

Manpreet says, ‘This is a great opportunity to expand the work of Tune into Traffic in the UK at a time of significant momentum in terms of road safety. The United Nations have just passed a resolution called for a Decade of Action for Road Safety and this fellowship will play an important role in realizing Tune into Traffic’s role in the Action’. Founded in 2008, Tune into Traffic has become a leading voice in the UK on youth road safety issues. The campaign reached an international audience after shooting a documentary with Channel 4 and since, has developed a strong media campaign and online presence. Tune into Traffic is also a key partner of YOURS: Youth for Road Safety and recently completed a successful global collaboration with YOURS called the ‘World Crossing Campaign’.

To date, YouthActionNet® has honored 180 young leaders from 59 countries. Fellows participate in a weeklong retreat held in Washington, D.C. and benefit from leadership development, skill-building, networking, and advocacy opportunities. Final selection of the 2010 YouthActionNet® Global Fellows was made by a distinguished panel of experts representing the private, nonprofit, and public sectors – along with the 2009 Class of Fellows.

To learn more about YouthActionNet® and this year’s Fellows, please visit: www.youthactionnet.org.

Considering that Russia counts 83 regions, this event is a unique conference on road safety within the country reaching such a huge number of provinces in the same time.

Amongst the participants were standing representatives of Driving Schools, of awareness NGOs, of the Parliament (State Duma) and of the Federation Council (Government), an international delegation representing Belgium, Austria, Moldova, Abkhazia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, several members of the Road Traffic Safety Commission, major international Centers for driver training, the media, some education management Bodies experts and Road Traffic Safety State Inspection under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and of course, last but not least, our global NGO: YOURS.

With much motivation and desire to bring MAASH all the relevant pieces of information to enable the, to join YOURS and build a Russian network. Axl defined in collaboration with MAASH preset objectives regarding YOURS involvement into this brilliant and fantastic initiative:

► Create a unique and strong core within a Russian network of active youngsters fighting for a better road safety. More importantly, on this huge territory the core will be modeled on the European Youth Forum experience and linked to YOURS.

► Help national/local NGO’s to continue the development of road safety awareness campaigns targeting youngsters, by providing high quality knowledge, material and tailor made campaigns in order to ease the implementation of road safety cost efficient yet qualitative events.

It is often surprising to hear that young people are over-represented in the number deaths due to road crashes ever year. However, when attempting to analyse factors behind such phenomena, it is not surprised that young male drivers constitute a significant proportion of these deaths. On average, young males are more likely to take risks on the road than young females and young men are more likely to use their automobiles for thrill seeking.

In response to this and as a concrete movement towards the forthcoming decade of action, PRP are hosting this conference with the aim that young drivers will take on board the seriousness of road safety and become road safety ambassadors for their peer group.

Our Communications Officer, Manpreet Darroch, will be attending the conference as a follow up of his work in Tunisia at the Young Drivers Forum. Manpreet will present alongside Axel Druart of Responsible Young Drivers Belgium and Hajer Bourouni of ATRP, a Tunisian Road Safety Association. At the conference, Manpreet will focus on presenting the key facts about the work of YOURS and present a call for action, where young people can join YOURS and become active road safety ambassadors. Here, the World Crossing Campaign video will also be showcased.

More information about the event will feature soon, including a video and photographic capture of the event. For more information contact: manpreet@youthforroadsafety.org