Second Belize Training of Faciliators kicks off in Belize!

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

In partnership with the Government of Belize and the Caribbean Development Bank, YOURS returns to Belize to train a second cadre of young faciltators specially selected from Belize’s talented youth leaders. The training will train more than 16 youth to support the previous 20 trained last year to reach over 2,000 young Belizeans on road safety issues all aropund the country.

Background to the Workshop

The Training of Facilitators (ToF) will take place over a two week period and is the full delivery of the YOURS programme to train a group of young people to become facilitators of their own youth and road safety workshops to run in the local community. The ToF was initiated and conducted by YOURS in partnership with the organizations named above. The training takes place from 1st – 12th June 2015.

The training kicked off with an opening ceremony with words from Mr Erol Gentle, CEO; Ministry of Works and Transport. Representing the Government of Belize, Mr Crispin Jeffries; Cheif Transport Officer, Depart of Transport. Mr Floor Lieshout; Director of YOURS – Youth for Road Safety.

The aims of the training is to:

Increase young people´s understanding of the road safety crisis in Belize and the risks they face on the roads (e.g: speeding, distracted driving).
Promote and increase the involvement of young people in road safety efforts in Belize.
Build the knowledge and develop the skills of 18 youth leaders in order for them to implement their own road safety activities

Part two of the training has already kicked off in Belize.

The training commencing training a second cadre of youth in Belize as well as Junior Master Trainers.

Creating the Agenda

The agenda for the training was created in collaboration with the national partners in Belize and it was with these partners that we chose the which key risk factors to focus on. Additionally, our local partners enabled us to access local statistics to localize the sessions. The training followed the unique stage process to couple theory with practise to give the participants concrete experience and build the skills they need to become effective facilitators. The stages were:

In this edition of the training, YOURS will train ‘Junior Master Trainers’ selected from the first pool of facilitators who will help to sustain the longevity of the programme and train new more facilitators moving forward.

Topics Covered

The training offered a high level of detail in week one on road safety theory and covered a range of topics which can be read in more detail here. The topics covered were:

Facilitation Skills
Peer Education
Fundamentals of Human Learning
Scope of the Road Safety Problem
Youth and Road Traffic Injuries
How Crashes Happen
Key Risk Factors in Road Safety: Speeding, Drink and Drug Driving and Distracted Driving
Communication and Public Speaking Skills
Team and Trust Building
Developing a Youth and Road Safety Workshop
Evaluation methods

You can expect more updates from the training on the YOURS website shortly!

Training of Facilitators – Belmopan, Belize from Manpreet Darroch on Vimeo.

Brian’s Column: Road safety in African consultations

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

Brian is back with his monthly column straight after appointing the National Youth Champions for Road Safety in Anglophone Africa. He’s back to reflect on his YOURS involvement in adolescent health consultations championed by the WHO in Johannesburg, South Africa. He offers some insights on the process in the mean time!

See, one of the oldest tales in the history of animal kingdom lied the suspicious female Chameleone who grew impatient of stories hovering over her apparent cheating husband. In a bid to resolve the matter once and for all, she patiently followed her husband and on that fateful day, she overheard him planning to meet his lover on one green tree. There was no time to waste, as the female Chameleone jogged to the said tree 2 hours before, and got her new green camouflage on. When the husband popped up well too early before the lover, the female Chameleone emerged from her ghetto smiling wryly with an evidence based degree of surity before uttering ‘Gotcha’. Legend says, the male Chameleone did castrate himself.

In what has been arguably the most busiest and well, the most defining part of 2016:-wow!, I meant 2015, comes the moment when I, together with 2 YOURS members from South Africa were at Emperors Palace, Hotel Casino Convention Resort, Johannesburg, South Africa Johannesburg from 5th-8th May 2015 with one mission:-‘Using evidence to get Road Traffic Injuries into Africa Regional Consultation for UN Secretary General’s Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030)”

In an effort to generate consensus on the priority issues and recommendations for adolescents and young people in the 2016-2030 Revised Global Strategy, WHO, PMNCH and UNFPA hosted an Adolescents and Youth Pre-consultation on the 5th of May 2015. Attended by nearly 50 young people from West Africa, Central Africa, Southern Africa, East Africa as panelists, plenary speakers and floor contributors, the meeting built on the revised Global Strategy’s additional focus on adolescents’ health, in acknowledgment of the role of adolescents and youth in accountability framework and governance structure of outcomes. With so many issues faced by adolescents and young people, how could a 3 man team get road traffic injuries into the final position paper? Did we have to strip ourselves or the evidence naked? We didn’t chose the latter…

Using existing scientific and credible evidence coupled by building from the experiences of the participants did we finally get the necessary attention for the world’s most dangerous assassin of young people. Thanks to WHO, we used the following advocacy catch phrases:

Road traffic Crashes are the leading cause of death for young people aged 15-29!
Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15-17!
Road traffic crashes are Preventable with low cost efforts like pedestrian walkways.
Globally, over 500 children are killed by road traffic crashes every day, with more than half happening in developing countries especially in Africa.
How many of you here have heard, witnessed a young life lost in a road traffic crash in their neighborhood?
As everybody shared key issues, priorities and recommendations from their respective sub-regions, plenary sessions, I always volunteered to be delegated to constitute the writing team for the position paper because you want always to be sure that after all the talk, your ideas are included in the final document:-You just got another advocacy trick without buying me a drink!

But perhaps, the most significant move was to ‘have the balls’ to ask some global health leaders what they thought about road traffic injuries Vs adolescents and young people during those coffee breaks and lunch breaks! There were leaders who greatly believed ‘SOMETHING’ needed to be done about road traffic injuries and we were even further encouraged by WHO’s Bruce and Jane who’ve been pushing literally a bull by its horns for inclusion of road traffic injuries in the next Global Strategy.

While including Africa region’s young people and adolescents in this consultation was itself a milestone and a half, because this never happened prior to formulation of the late MDGs, getting road traffic injuries in the Africa regional consultation position paper is just one hell of a leap!

Only avoiding ‘loose talk’ to focus on evidence based prioritization in the global health challenges of children, women, young people, coupled by effective follow up at every stage of the way, shall lead us to the promised land. #StaySafe

YOURS participates in WHO Consultation on Adolescent Health

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

Last week, YOURS was invited by the World Health Organization’s Adolescent Health Department to discuss a broad range of health issues facing youth. As part of a consultation on determinants for adolescent health, YOURS joined a range of youth leaders from sexual and reproductive health to substance abuse. The WHO consultation served as a consultation on the forthcoming report on Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health as well as a youth scorecard on health determinants.

During the two day consultation held at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland, youth health champions discussed and gathered contributions for accelerating action for adolescent health which will feed into both the United Nations Secretary General’s Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health and the World Health Organization’s Framework for Accelerated Action for Adolescent Health. The Adolescent Health Department stated,

“We believe that young people should meaningfully participate in the decisions that affect their health and that are great leaders and agents of change”.

A range of topics were health topics discussed and brought to the table such as violence and road safety, substance abuse, non-communicable diseases, humanitarian efforts, sexual and reproductive health and range of determinants for adolescent health. YOURS contributed to the global road safety topic building on our previous involvement with a similar consultation in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During the consultation, youth undertook a mapping exercise to identify key determinants of adolescent health.

Manpreet Darroch, Comms Officer at YOURS who attended the event said, ‘This consultation served as a unique opportunity to map the key issues facing youth in terms of adolescent health. The sheer variety of youth leaders championing specific health related advocacy, interventions and action brought a plethora of key issues to the table and the team did incredibly well to prioritize topics that will feed into the Global Stategy as well as an exciting opportunity to empower youth with WHO’s youth health scorecard concept’.

Two related events took place during which the aim to identify the elements for a proposal for funding the development and testing of a youth-led scorecard on adolescent health, based on checklists/tools that young people can use to monitor presence and absence of determinants of health and interventions to promote and protect health in their countries and to track health outcomes.

The group of youth champions from all across the world gathered in Geneva.

The first event took place on the 12th and 13th of May with a broad range of youth champions advocating for health. From the 14th May, the consultation group joined in the sessions of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) Pre-World Health Assembly Youth Workshop on Global Health Diplomacy. There was also a stream of sessions focusing on adolescent health during which the group continued the work begun on 12/13th May with additional participants. The discussions during these days were incorporated into into a concrete advocacy strategy for use during the World Health Assembly and beyond. The World Health Assembly, the governing body of the World Health Organization, is runs from the 18th of May to May 26th.

In continuing the consultation process, YOURS invites all members of the Global Youth Network for Road Safety to participate in this survey on the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health. We encourage you to read the Zero Draft and offer input from your perspectives on road safety issues.

Are you ready for the Third UN Global Road Safety Week?

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

As you will know by now, the Third UN Global Road Safety kicks off this Sunday 4th May taking us up to 10th May for a full week of road safety action and awareness raising. The theme for this week is children and road safety with the flagship campaign #SaveKidsLives. If you haven’t taken part already, make the week a chance to get as many signatures for the campaign and take a stand for road safety, there was never a better opportunity!

Around 186 300 children under 18 years die from road traffic crashes annually, and rates of road traffic death are three times higher in developing countries than in developed countries. The Third UN Global Road Safety Week – #SaveKidsLives – seeks to highlight the plight of children on the world’s roads and generate action to better ensure their safety. The Week features hundreds of events hosted by governments, international agencies, civil society organizations, and private companies, including the delivery of the “Child Declaration for Road Safety” to policy-makers. These events highlight WHO’s package of ten key strategies for keeping children safe on the road.

Take action for road safety during the week!

The World Health Organization (WHO) have published a set of infographics alongside their report, ‘Ten Strategies for Keeping Children Safe on the Road’. The graphics illustrate the plight of our children on the world’s roads as well as brings the ten strategies to life through pictures.

Don’t forget to sign up to the #SaveKidsLives campaign, take a #Safie and Deliver the Child Declaration for Road Safety!

Brazilian Football says #SaveKidsLives – David Luiz becomes ambassador!

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

Exciting news comes from Brazil as Michelin and Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) supports the #SaveKidsLives Campaign and place it within a footballing context for mass support. The collaboration aims to bring in 100,000 Brazilian signatures in support of the Child Declaration for road safety, which will be delivered to the Brazilian government.

Yesterday, a press conference took place at the CBF’s auditorium where Marketing Directors of CBF and Michelin, Gilberto Ratto and Fernando Diniz, were responsible for the explanations of the actions to be performed for the campaign in the competition.

Among other things, the #SaveKidsLives logo will be printed on footballs and used during the first round of the Brazilian Football League and the players will enter the field with a banner with the phrase of the campaign: “Together for Road Safety”.

Also there will be #SaveKidsLives booths in stadiums across the country. There people can sign the Child Declaration for Road Safety to collaborate with the 100.000 signatures that the partnerships wishes to deliver to the Brazilian government in support of #SaveKidsLives. David Luiz will be the Brazilian Ambassador for #SaveKidsLives.

Click here to watch the Michelin and CBF Press Conference.

You can read the announcement at the CBF website here (Portuguese). If you haven’t already, we encourage you to also sign the Child Declaration for Road Safety to #SaveKidsLives.

Announcing the YOURS National Champions: Anglophone Africa

by Youth For Road Safety | Dec 20, 2023 | News & Blog

Our Regional Cooridnator for Anglohpone Africa, Mr Brian Bilal Mwebaze has been incredibly busy recruiting National Youth Champions for Road Safety in 14 countries across Africa. These champions help us to be even closer to youth on the ground as well as build on our team capacity. We welcome fifteen youth to the YOURS roster joining the CORE Group, Ambassadors and YOURS Staff to tackle the road safety crisis facing youth.

This initiative is a group of young people who are passionate about road safety from the comprehensive realm covering injuries, disabilities, violence and its related burden and relationship with other public health challenges not limited to climate change, sustainable development. Currently road traffic crashes is the leading cause of death for young people globally. Africa is hit hard.

With such a significant portion of the population being affected, the Road Safety Youth Champions initiative aims to be a key force in raising awareness of road safety and advocating for the needs of this population. As a part of the greater YOURS network, this initiative recognizes the invisibility of road safety youth champions from community level, district level, regional level, and country level, and also recognizes the need to raise awareness of this global problem, in order to advocate for the growth of supports and services for young people.

National Road Safety Youth Champions is comprised of dedicated and passionate young people who want to raise awareness about road safety and also gain valuable skills. Members of this initiative shall get valuable experience in raising awareness and gaining skills in social media, public speaking, and outreach efforts.