20/11/11 is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) and today, YOURS launches its Embrace Life Photo Exhibition. During the WDR we mourn the nearly 1.3 million deaths on our roads and reminds us to embrace life and commit to road safety. We share with you this collection of inspiring pictures from people around the world who have shown us how they embrace life and commit to road safety. Check out our exhibition now.
The Embrace Life Campaign was our 2011 road safety campaign powered by YOURS – Youth for Road Safety. This year’s campaign was all about appreciating life and recognizing that our actions to keep safe on the road has enabled us to live, while many have been taken on the road.
We asked young people to capture how they Embrace Life and commit to road safety through a photo and we have received hundreds. Each photo we have received resembles a unique culture and a personalized setting capturing a young person in their own time and place. By capturing what they hold dear in life, the young people are firstly recognizing what is important to them and subsequently, they consciously make the personal pledge to be safe on the road to safeguard these valuable moments/items/people.
We have received pictures from the four corners of the world, from the United Kingdom to New Zealand. From Kenya to Pakistan, from Croatia to India! All the pictures received are incredibly unique and we are very proud to share them with you to commemorate the World Day of Remembrace for Road Traffic Victims.
The sentiment of the Embrace Life Campaign is fitting with the WDR principles whereby young people from around the world have reflected upon the importance of life while remembering those who have been victims of road crashes. We know that reflecting upon the value and importance of life, our delegates appreciate that road safety enables life to continue with minimized dangers and hindrances.
Some of the responses from the young people have been captured in these quotes:
“The Embrace Life Campaign has really enabled be to see the value of life, by remembering what is important makes me feel that I need to take care on the road “–William, UK
“The Embrace Life Campaign gave me the motivation and sight to see that life is good”- Amon Focus, USA
“I believe this has been a a unique way to raise awareness and empower people around road safety. The new campaign gives every one the opportunity to actively participate in the global effort of reducing accidents by promoting Life”. – Affi Luc, Ivory Coast
Manpreet Darroch, Communications Officer at YOURS said, ‘This campaign has seen an uptake of participation nearly 10 times that of the World Crossing Campaign last year. This campaign has been truly participatory with hundreds of photos sent in from hundreds of countries and each person has embraced life in their own unique way. I particularly like the photos of family, a young person clutching their neice, nephew, son or daughter and the smiles on their faces really bring home the fact that road safety is so important because many people who have fallen victims to the road are no longer here to enjoy the love of their families. The campaign illustrates the diversity of youth from around the world who are united by one value; life and preserving it through road safety’.
You can view our exhbition in the gallery to the right and view our flash gallery here.