It has been nearly six months since we undertook the Training of Faciiltators with a group of exceptional youth in Belize. Since then, the young faciltators have been making waves across the country reaching over 1000 youth already. Recently, President of the Caribbean Dr William Warren Smith visited Belize and saw the youth in action.

We are incredibly excited to announce that youth in Belize are working incredibly hard to reach thousands of young people since their training Belize in June this year. Recently, President of the Caribbean Development Bank Dr William Warren Smith visited Belize to understand and acquire a direct exposure to the investment made by the Caribbean Development Bank in Belize. More specifically, he visited the youth who were trained by YOURS back in June to see their workshops in action. The project that took place earlier this year is a USD $157,000 Youth and Road Safety Capacity Building Project jointly funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Belize (GOBZ).

The project was executed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Road Safety Unit and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The road safety capacity building programme for teens and young adults will be facilitated by Youth For Road Safety, an international youth-led and youth- oriented, not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation focused on youth and road safety.

The programme utilised a train-the-trainer approach, while incorporating peer education and active learning. It is expected that the project will also enhance the benefits to be realised from the ongoing USD8.844 million CDB and GOBZ funded Road Safety Project launched in March 2013.

It was clear that President Smith was incredibly impressed with the workshop run by the youth facilitators and commended their energy and commitment to the cause. The President of CDB saw the youths in action implementing the methodology acquired through YOURS.  He seems very hopeful that the peer to peer support will spread good road safety practices and will contribute to the behavioural change in the long term. The facilitators themselves thought it went excellent!  Shantell Jacobs believed that the students were of a high quality and were very receptive of the techniques imparted.  She also believed that they will share knowledge and skills obtained to their friends and family members.

The facilitators were trained to run these road safety workshops through YOURS’ Capacity Development Programme. The youth continue to reach young people and have already reached over 50% of their proposed target of 2,000 Belizean youth. In the coming months, the YOURS team will return to Belize to quality-check the trainings as well as ‘top-up’ the knowledge of the youth on road safety knowledge.

Read more about workshops at YOURS here.

As the winter period sets in the Western hemisphere of the world, dark mornings, dark afternoons and icy conditions make driving on the road difficult. As a vulnerable road users, cyclists are at even more risk on the road. Here are some tips for cyclists.

Star comment: Think bike and protect cyclists – From Shropshire Star – UK
The dark mornings and dark evenings of the winter spell extra danger for cyclists. They are out on two wheels with their environmentally friendly method of travel which also ticks the boxes for keeping fit and healthy. They rub shoulders in the gloom with impatient cars and lorries who often do not overtake so much as squeeze by.

Into this cocktail of deadly risk venture youngsters pedalling their way to school. Even the most experienced are in danger, as evidenced by the fact that Tony Hewson, an 80-year-old former Tour of Britain winner, was injured in Craven Arms the other day, a road which earlier claimed the life of a bike rider.

More cyclist tips.

So what is the solution? It is easy to say, but not easy to do – separate the cyclists from the cars and lorries.

Even in a new town like Telford (UK), which was built with dedicated cycle paths, the network is a hotchpotch, where you can get from A to B, but if you want to get to C you will have to break out onto the roads.

Until towns are given a cycling network to match the road network, which will be never, the primary responsibility for safety rests with motorists who need to be cycle aware – and give cyclists space.

The #SaveKidsLives campaign is the official campaign in the run up to the 3rd United Nation Global Road Safety Week which takes place in May 2015. In the six months leading up to the week which carries the theme of Children and Road Safetyt, the #SaveKidsLives campaign calls on you to show your support.

Today we see the launch of the #SaveKidsLives campaign, a unique campaign that calls on the direct participation of the global community to show their support to enact road safety measures for children. Every day over 500 children are killed on the world’s roads and thousands more are injured. This is unacceptable. The world is unitng to show that we stand up to save kids lives.

Principles of the #SaveKidsLives campaign:
Read it, Sign it, Show it, Deliver it.

Read it: Kids the world over inspired this Child Declaration. They voiced their thoughts and fears about travelling on the roads. They said what they need to be kept safe on the roads.In a joint effort, the world’s experts also outlined measures that must be taken. Together we call upon decision-makers worldwide to take action and protect children. Let’s Save Kids Lives.

Read the Child Declaration for Road Safety.

Sign it: By signing the Child Declaration for Road Safety, you add you name to the list of supporters calling on the world’s leaders to enact change for children in regards to road safety. Your name will be delivered to leaders and the more names we have the more weight our message has.

Sign the Child Declaration for Road Safety.

Show it: Show your support for the campaign by taking an easy #Safie:

• Download the signboard!
• Write your road safety message
• Take a photo.
• Share it on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #Safie and #SaveKidsLives.

Deliver it: In May 2015 the Third UN Global Road Safety Week will take place. Around then, we will all deliver the Child declaration to our local and global leaders.

To have our voices heard, we need as many people as possible to organise events where the Declaration is delivered to decision makers. You could organise events together with children at your local school, or with your community centre.

Maybe you can work together with the media, where the children can act as journalists while they hand over the Child Declaration to your local leader.

Visit the #SaveKidsLives website now and take part!