We are very excited to share the news that YOURS has been awarded a grant from the Road Safety Fund to run a ‘Training of Trainers’ program with young people in Kenya. The program will run as part of our key strategic pillar of Capacity Development which seeks to support existing efforts to improve road safety in Kenya by engaging with young leaders to promote safer road use.
The Road Safety Fund has awarded grants through its 2012 Small Grants Programme to non-governmental organisations working across a diverse range of road injury prevention programmes.
The Small Grants Programme is supported through major donations from insurance company Allianz and technology company Bosch, both Global Supporters of the Decade of Action, as well as a number of other companies. Projects were prioritised that could demonstrate potential for sustainable capacity development and a catalysing effect on national policies and the wider implementation of road safety.
YOURS will deliver the Training of Trainers Capacity Development Program in Kenya thanks to the support of the Road Safety Fund.
The project falls under YOURS’ capacity development strategic pillar of activity and the Road User Pillar in the Decade of Action Plan.
The two main objectives of this project are to:
- Improve understanding of young people of road safety and the risks they face on the roads (especially of key risk factors)
- Promote and increase the involvement of young people in road safety efforts in Kenya
YOURS will work closely with local stakeholders and partners active in Kenya to identify 15-20 young individuals between 18-29 to train as facilitators of road safety workshops for young people. With the support of YOURS secretariat, the Regional Coordinator for Africa based in Kenya, and other partners, the newly trained facilitators will then organize and facilitate at least 10 road safety workshops for young people using the Youth and Road Safety Action Kit produced by YOURS.
These workshops can be conducted in schools, universities, community centres or any other setting. At the end of each workshop, participants will create and commit to their personal action plans: how will they use the information they gained? YOURS’ team will coordinate with the facilitators, follow up, and provide support as needed to ensure that the workshops are carried out according to plan.
Other important initiatives awarded the Road Safety Fund grants include:
- A motorcycle helmet safety awareness initiative in Niger, building on a recent toughening of the country’s Road Code, led by NGO Ong Fondei Ma Bori in partnership with UNICEF;
- Training courses: a safe urban transport planning course run by IRTE’s College of Traffic Management in India and a postgraduate course for road safety professionals in low and middle income countries run by Delft University;
- Training in post crash trauma care for first responders in Uganda, managed by the Injury Control Centre Uganda.
- Development of a hospital-based injury surveillance network, coordinated by the Indonesian Ministry of Health;
- A training initiative for manufacturers, medical practitioners and road safety campaigners in Argentina, Chile and Paraguay run by Fundación Gonzalo Rodríguez, building on their successful campaign to improve both parental awareness and child seat safety standards in Uruguay.
Everybody at YOURS is very excited to implement this project in Kenya which will compliment the launch of our Youth and Road Safety Action Kit which is being launched officially and the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration meeting in Washington DC next month (April 2012)
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Director of YOURS, Mr Floor Lieshout said, ‘This is another grreat opportunity for the YOURS Capacity Development Program to build the skills of young people on the ground to not only be safer on the road but also to pass the message of road safety on to their peers in an effective way. I thank the Road Safety Fund and its sponsors for supporting our work, together we can save many young lives’.
The Road Safety Fund recently supported YOURS in the training of our new CORE Group which creates a ripple of activity around the world in youth and road safety under the efforts of our Coordinators of the Regions.