From the 20th-25th October, the second leg of the Caravane journey took place as the road safety vehicle entered Benin and continued to greet thousands of young Africans. The updates from Benin came in thick and fast displaying some fantastic actions across the country including the first even African Night Without Accident emulating the Europe wide action! Read more about the activities in Benin’s journey of the Caravane here.
On the 20th of October 2012, BENIN welcomed the young volunteers of the Caravane in Parakou, thanks to the NGO ALINAGNON.
The Caravane volunteers arrive in Benin welcomed by Beninese delgates.
It was the opportunity for the authorities and government to send a delegation to meet the volunteers from Benin and Niger who gave the African Youth Declaration for Road Safety to the main transport and youth education stakeholders. The activities, coordinated by the members of ALINAGNON, started at the Guy RIOBE Centre, with a welcoming ceremony and several road safety awareness tools’ demonstrations.
On the morning of Sunday 21st of October 2012, a big awareness activity took place on the main Y crossroad of the city of Parakou (in Benin). This awareness action was really successful, since we could sensitize more than 8.000 road users (very crowded area), on several road safety topics: seatbelt, helmet, visibility, impaired driving, etc.
Young volunteers in Benin undertaking awareness activities!
In total, about 60 youngsters (caravanners and employees of ALINAGNON) were dressed with fluorescent jackets in order to be visible and cover all the streets surrounding the Y crossroad.
The event reached almost 8000 young people in a busy area of Benin!
As well, reflective stickers mentioning “TOGETHER, WE’LL MAKE OUR ROADS SAFER” (created during the European Youth Forum for Road Safety) were also stuck on the back of all vehicles (including 2-wheelers and bikes) passing by, with a satisfied welcoming smile from all drivers. Numerous posters and flyers were of course also distributed. On the 21st afternoon, a study visit has been organized after the awareness activities in the textile factory of Benin (COTEB). In the evening, the volunteers could relax a bit and visit the beautiful city of Parakou.
On Tuesday 23rd of October 2012, a Press-Conference was organized in the Civil Society Hall (MdSC) with the delivery of the African Youth Declaration for Road Safety to main concerned stakeholders. The audience could benefit from the presence of the Coordinator of Handicap International (HI) in Benin, the President of the Steering Committee of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, the Director of the Ministry of Transport and the Public Work (MTTP), the members of ALINAGNON, the young caravanners, the media (Press & TV), and several other delegations from the authorities and government services.
After some welcoming words of Handicap International, the coordinator of the NGO ALINAGNON and M. TCHAFFA, representing the Ministry of Health, the representative of the caravanners read the Youth Declaration, then handled it to the director of the MTTP representing the government. The later kindly thanked the caravanners and committed. A family picture was finally taking before heading to a cocktail party to close the ceremony.
After handing the Youth Declaration, the caravanners attended a special road safety “train-the-trainers” training, called SafetyPack organized by the coordinators of the NGO ALINAGNON, M. Casimir MIGAN and Souleymane ALTINE, from the Nigerian NGO FONDEI MA BORI, head-leader of the Caravane of the NGO. This adapted training, based on an European good practice (from Responsible Young Drivers), consists in using various awareness tools to imitate the behaviour of drivers, hence better understanding dangerous conditions (e.g. an impaired person behind the steering wheel), on the port of the helmet, then analyse their consequences and give some simple tricks to apply and advice for a better road safety behaviour.
This training was put into practice with the pupils of the catholic middle school of the Sacred-Heart, with the presence of the director and all the professors. It was very successful as we could reach about 1200 students.
On Wednesday 24th, the NGO ALINAGNON organized a Caravane-Parade with a podium-truck which went through 3 cities: Sèmè-Kpodji, Cotonou and Abomey-Calavi.
More than 150 young people participated in this huge activity. Posters and flyers were distributed. The Caravane-Podium-Truck purposely stopped in the big crossroads to sensitize road users. A particular attention was set on Taxi-motorcycle drivers, so-called “Zémidjan”. Other various topics were also broached: The wear of the helmet, the seatbelt, the Courtesy on the road, the respect for the traffic lanes, the drink-driving issue, etc. With music on board, the caravanners surely danced for safer roads in Africa.
On Thursday 25th of October, last day of the Caravane in Benin, the caravanners competed in a football game versus the team of AKPAKPA. A game which ended with a score of 3 – 2 in favour of the Akpakpans.
Each player of the winning team won a helmet as a reward, but the Cup of the Youth Caravan for Road Safety in the UEMOA was given to the caravanners who will transport it to Senegal, the last stage of the Caravane. This activity was the last one in Benin.
You can see more photos of the events in Benin in the photo album on the right column! The Caravane now heads into Togo!