In 2010, YOURS launched its first ever global awareness campaign, the World Crossing Campaign. In this, young people from all over the world united in our video contest to show the world that young people are committed to road safety. After we chose the winner of that competition, Mr Siaka Dba of the Gambia, he ran his own road safety project with a small grant from YOURS. That project continues to inspire three years later.

The premise of the World Crossing Campaign of 2010 was simple, shoot a video of a young person crossing the road holding a banner calling for global road safety for young people. The response was incredible. Participants entered from around the world and submitted their walk which we merged into one long crossing. For the winning video, we chose the videos of Mr Siaka K Dba of the National Youth Parliament of the Gambia and awarded him with €1000 for his own road safety project in the country.

His project spanned across the media, included trainings, school and university talks and radio shows across the country sharing the message of road safety with young people in The Gambia. Since then, the legacy of that project continues to show inspired young people taking a stand for road safety. Recently, Siaka (Rt Honorable Member of the National Youth Parliament of the Gambia) forwarded us an article written in The Gambia’s most popular newspaper. It was written by one of the young people who the project reached; we reproduce it below. Read more about Siaka’s project after the World Crossing Campaign here.

Original Source for the article can be found here.

We Want to live.
Road crashes have always been a major killer in this country. Though we do not have the statistics at hand, media reports testify to the fact that many lives have been lost, through road accidents.

The causes of these accidents are many and varied.

Over-speeding, negligence due to faulty brakes or worn-out tires or the lack of headlights (especially at night) have often been pinpointed as the root causes of road accidents in the country.

Poor roads, with crater-like potholes or narrow slippery bends, are also at the root of most accidents.

An accident is an accident, simply because it was not planned or intended, but its resultant harm could be mitigated or curtailed through caution and forethought.

One such measure is the continuous use of the seat belts or safety belts, as it is sometimes called. We think the use of safety belt is more appropriate, because it conveys more explicitly the purpose it is meant to serve.

The great merit of the safety belt is that it gives the passenger stability, when an accident happens. As a result, he or she suffers less harm than they would have suffered without using their safety belts.

A few years ago, the idea of the use of safety belt was mooted, it was greeted with skepticism. Most people were of the belief that it was unenforceable.

But the police stood to their grounds, and warned that any violator of the safety belt law would be dealt with sternly and right on the spot.

Since then, drivers themselves have taken it upon themselves to remind passengers to always fasten their safety belts.

There are three issues at play here. One, it is ironic that people have to be forced to safeguard their own lives. Two, it tells us that any rule or law is enforceable, provided there is the will to enforce it. Three, it has disabused our minds of the misconception that Africans cannot be made to keep basic laws.

But there is another dimension to the use of safety belts.

The authorities should and must not be seen to slacken their vigilance. If they do so, the rot will set in. They should work hard at it until the practice becomes as involuntary as the blinking of our eyelids.