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.

For more information about the National Champions Initiative, contact Brian Bilal Mwebaze at brian@youthforroadsafety.org

They represent the following countries:

Egypt
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Malawi
Nigeria
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Meet your champions:

Agnes Rinomhota – Zimbabwe

Allex Ayub – Kenya

Arnold Mutashobya Kambuga – Tanzania

Basant Motawi – Egypt

Buumba Molambo – Zambia

Dawda Bah – Gambia

Doreen Asimadu – Ghana

Isaac Gugonza – Uganda

Lemo Opeyemi – Nigeria

Mc Carthyin Samalani – Malawi

Mohammed Donzo – Liberia

Moses Asiimwe – Rwanda

Meet all of your Anglophone Africa Champions in more detail here.

A new tool available to promote #SaveKidsLives!

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

Our Founding Member Michelin is an international beacon for road safety awareness, investment and resposibility. More recently, a2om teamed up with Michelin to develop a set of materials that gives parents the tools to sit down with their children and talk about key risk factors facing them on the road. The materials come in the form of a creative two page document.

a2om, with the help of Michelin, has developed this tool to promote #SaveKidsLives for the wider public, as well amongst their workers in their places, headquarters. Most importantly they invite parents to talk with their kids about road safety. It is in suport of the the #SaveKidsLives Campaign, the official campaign for the Third UN Road Safety Week.

The document focuses on five key road safety tips for children by being visible on the road; cross where you can be seen, make sure you and your bycicle can be seen, use the appropriate seat and make sure you always wear your seatbelt.

Good and bad examples of how children can be visible on the roads.

As well as the five points of safety, the document also includes a fun activity, spotting the difference between a safe and unsafe situation where a child is crossing the road while cycling. The activity encourages children to ‘colour in’ the differences and notice how one is much safer than the other.

In the #SaveKidsLives Academy, children colour in and find 5 differences that the child is undertaking in the two pictures, one safe and one unsafe. At the end of the activity, children and their parents take a #Safie and have the chance to upload their pictures online to contribute to the #SaveKidsLives campaign.

Download the Michelin and a2om Kit, also availabe in the attachments in the right column.

Check out the latest activity for the campaign on Social Media!

Aakash Shah joins YOURS as Global Ambassador: Post-2015 Agenda

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

In our mission to promote youth and road safety issues across the world, a new member of the team comes aboard at YOURS with a specific and robust mission to embed youth into the forthcoming Post-2015 Development Agenda. Aakash Shah is young, passionate and talented young man who has previously worked closely on the MY World survey in India and continues to make strides for youth involvement in road safety. He joins YOURS’ global team in a Global Ambassador position to bring awareness to the road safety crisis facing youth on an international platform.

In the build up to the defining of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, YOURS and its network have been involved in a range of consultation processes to ensure youth and road safety issues are brought to the table as a serious threat to youth development. We met Aakash Shah recently via the #SaveKidsLives Campaign and he impressed everyone at YOURS through his passion an commitment as well as his ability to mobilize youth in India. He joins YOURS as a Global Ambassador for the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

His role will include working on a high-level platform to represent YOURS at foremost events propagating the road safety  goals, to update the global network on the progress of SDG’s and mainly road safety, continue to promote the #SaveKidsLives campaign all across the world with youth, as well as working with us to formulate strategies for the implementation of SDG’s once the agenda is set.

In a statement he said,

“Being aware of the detrimental effects of road crashes all around the world and the way it is affecting every nation as a whole, I always wanted to work in the field of road safety on a global platform”.

Working with youth across India, Aakash was able to gather over 30,000 signatures for the #SaveKidsLives campaign. Aakash is a resident of Pune,India. This 19 year old is currently studying Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from Maeer’s MIT institution. Recognized as the “Terrific Teen’ by Times of India , at the age of 16, he founded a city based youth organisation, ‘Action for Pune Development’ with 63 like-minded youngsters. The main aim of the organisation is to involve young people in various developmental issues like road safety , environment, cleanliness, education etc. and within a period of 3 years, the organisation reached over 53,000 youngsters across the city.

He’s a dedicated Road Safety advocate and has worked very closely with young people in India. He has played a key role in creating awareness on use of helmets , seat-belts , pedestrian safety etc. along with government organisations , civil society groups , youth organisations , educational institutes etc. In 2013, he was given special recognition by the Deputy Commissioner of Pune Traffic Police for creating road safety awareness in the city.

In May 2014 , he was given the post of the Global Youth Advocate for UN My World 2015 and World We Want Campaign by United Nations Millennium Campaign.As a global youth advocate , he planned a very effectual gratis strategy for reaching out maximum young people across India for My World and World We Want Survey. The strategy included collaborating with Technical Book Publisher , Collaborating with education institutes , newspapers , radio channels etc. Along with a team of 63 ambassadors, he reached out to over half a million people with My World Survey and stood 3rd to reach maximum people across the world.

For this outstanding work , he was awarded with UN My World Innovations Award during the UN General Assembly in 2014 by the hands of Ms.Zoleka Mandela. Aakash is also now a member of the Policy Strategy Group , United Nations World We Want.

“As a result of our collaboration, we will reach out to thousands of youth across the world and together solve the unacceptable issue of deaths and disabilities due to road crashes world-wide. I am all geared up for this task and eagerly waiting to start working on our future projects”. – Aakash Shah – YOURS Global Ambassador: Post-2015 Agenda

Floor Lieshout, Director at YOURS said, “YOURS believes in strong youth empowerment and involvement in road safety. We as youth have the passion, energy and commitment to reach out to our peers as ambassadors and role models for road safety. We are excited to have Aakash on board as he works with us for a road safety target in the Post-2015 Development Agenda”

You can expect some news and articles coming from Aakash in the coming weeks and months!

Ten Stategies for Keeping Children Safe on the Road – WHO Publish report

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

A new report from the World Health Organization recommends ten road traffic injury prevention strategies for protecting children. The report, ‘Ten Strategies for Keeping Children Safe on the Road’ is published today in advance of the 3rd UN Global Road Safety Week on May 4-11 and contributes towards the #SaveKidsLives campaign.

Every four minutes a child is prematurely lost on the roads of this world. Many more are injured, often severely. These traumatic events cause immeasurable suffering and grief, and at times economic hardship for families and friends. In addition, they cost societies precious resources, diverting these from other pressing health and development challenges.

Many of the children who are victims of this man-made calamity are poor. Attempts to address road safety for children are, therefore, inextricably linked to notions of social justice, and should be part of global efforts to reduce poverty.

For countries in a phase of rapid motorization – many of them middle-income countries – roads are often built without due consideration for the communities they pass through. Historically, this was also the case in high-income countries. A shift in mind set is desperately needed to ensure that roads everywhere serve the needs of and are safe for all who use them, including children, but also other vulnerable groups such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

Such a change is imperative for ongoing efforts to promote healthy lifestyles. The walking, cycling and other physical activity that would do much to curb overweight and obesity in children will inevitably bring them into contact with the road. It is only if those roads are made safe that children will be inclined to use them and their parents and other caregivers will allow them to do so.

Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO: ˝The future of a country is its young people. We cannot afford to lose our children to road traffic crashesˮ

A new report from the WNo single measure adequately addresses the vast range of risks to children on the road, however, there are steps that each family, community, and country can take to improve road safety for children. In those countries which have demonstrated the greatest declines in road traffic death and injury, strong laws and stringent enforcement of those laws, and enhancements in the safety of roads and vehicles have proven to make a difference. The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020 offers a broad framework for taking these and other actions to keep children safe on the road.orld Health Organization recommends ten road traffic injury prevention strategies for protecting children. The report, ‘Ten Strategies for Keeping Children Safe on the Road’ is published today in advance of the 3rd UN Global Road Safety Week on May 4-11 and contributes towards the #SaveKidsLives campaign.

Read the report, Ten Strategies to Keep Children Safe on the Road.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »