We have published our Annual Report 2015, highlighting exacty what we we did in the previous year. It includes some key milestones for the last year and highlights how we as a global youth organization, contributed to several initatives as well as spearheaded our own. We have made our Annual Report easy on the eye so as you can get a grasp of our work easily!
FOREWORD – by Floor Lieshout Executive Director
Today’s generation of young people is the largest ever in our history. Over 3 billion people – nearly half of the world’s population – are under the age of 25. Of these young people, more than 1000 die every day on the world’s roads. Tens of thousands more are injured. Road traffic injuries have been the leading killer of young people worldwide for over a decade, so why are youth so often not included in preventing these tragedies?
Young people have a right to be adequately informed, consulted and empowered on road safety. YOURS believes that youth themselves have a vital role to help save lives on the world’s roads. After all, this is the biggest threat to their lives. Young people can do so much to contribute. Is there any group better placed to act as role models, lead peer education, raise awareness, mobilize communities and advocate for change. YOURS has seen this first hand; we trained a second cohort of fifteen youth advocates and peer-educators on road safety in Belize. Together with the first cohort they have already reached over 2000 young people face-to-face with interactive youth workshops, and hundreds of thousands via their campaigns. We are very excited to continue our work with the Caribbean Development Bank and the Government of Belize over the coming years.
In addition, with the help of our regional coordinators, we selected the first national youth champions in Africa and the Caribbean. I welcome them to the YOURS family and I hope for a fruitful collaboration over the coming years.
2015 was also the year that YOURS received the Social Award for Best Road Safety Initiative out of the hands of Her Majesty Queen Sofía of Spain. We won this award for our unique youth capacity development programme. We thank the Mapfre Foundation for organizing these illustrious Awards. This prestigious award serves as an enormous inspiration and it is an important recognition for the involvement of youth in road safety.
We have a massive challenge ahead of us, which also presents exciting opportunities. For over two years, we have been leading a youth push for a road safety target within the Global Goals. And now the world has five years to deliver the most ambitious safety target ever set: to halve road deaths and injuries globally. We need a revolution for action on road safety. Surely we must look to young people to lead and energize this revolution.
In conclusion I would like to thank all partners for their support. Let’s continue to unleash the power of youth together. No more delay, and no more excuses. Let’s build a better future for all of our young people, for all of us and for the generations to come.
