First Aid Initiative Rwanda (FAIR) Pilot Project
Objective
Reduction of mortality and morbidity rates related to road traffic accidents through raising awareness and policy advocacy on road safety and first aid in Rwanda.
Activities
Over 3,400 people die on the world's roads every day and tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year.Through this pilot project, training of trainers on road safety and first aid was carried out. In this case, trainers were health club teachers, HPR volunteers and students in health clubs.
HPR volunteers and Health club teachers’ workshop
A two days workshop was organized by HPR to empower HPR volunteers and secondary teachers from health clubs. Of the 20 HPR volunteers and 8 secondary school teachers invited, 92.8% attended. The gender ratio was 1:1, men to women and HPR volunteers were aged 24-30. The workshop’s curriculum had been developed by HPR and its partner organization “the International Medical Cooperation committee (IMCC-FAIR)”; and entailed theoretical and practical portions.
Trainings of Health Club's Students
From September - December 2016, HPR volunteers took the lead in training Health clubs from 4 secondary schools. These Health clubs accounted for 50-60 members who were split into groups during the training. 220 students were expected to participate in the training, nevertheless 81.8% attended. Participants’ gender distribution was 52.2% males and 78.8% females with age that ranged between 11 and 23 years. Each training session lasted for 1hour30 minutes to 2 hours. Pre and post training tests were given to assess the acquisition of knowledge. At the end of the training, health club students with enough road safety and first aid skills to teach their peers had risen to 87% compared to 18% prior to the training.
Health clubs’ campaigns
Health clubs members and teachers who had taken part in the training collaboratively organized campaigns. Pull ups and posters were hung in school yards throughout the campaigns and flyers distributed to all students in the school. In total, 2000-2200 were reached out in the 4 campaigns, and about 100 students (59%) attended the campaign.
Advocacy Meeting
A policy advocacy meeting was organized and Governmental as well as Non- Governmental Organizations working in fields closely related to youth and road safety were invited. Participants expressed their interest in the initiative and suggested further expansion of the project nationwide.
First Aid Initiative Rwanda (FAIR) Project (2017 -2019)
Objective
To extend FAIR pilot activities to more stakeholders in Rwanda.
Activities
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Education of high schools and driving students on road safety and first aid
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Training of health club teachers
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Training of HPR Volunteers
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Training of motor drivers and public cars drivers
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Education of the public on road safety via social media
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Advocacy meeting
Education of high and driving school students on road safety and first aid
6500 students in high and driving schools were reached out. For high schools, 946 students from 18 schools located in Kigali City were trained through their health clubs. In addition, 130 driving schools were trained and 22 campaigns were carried out; 18 aiming high schools and 4 driving schools.
Training of health club teachers on road safety and first aid
Each participating high school normally has 2 teachers (male and female) in charge of health clubs. This project trained these teachers emanating from 20 schools in Kigali City. The take home message was to continuously empower students on safe road use.
Capacity Building
HPR has relentlessly initiated efforts towards Rwandan safer roads. Within this framework, 30 HPR volunteers were trained on road safety and first aid. The HPR team has also participated in the Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd (DUF) seminar in Denmark and the 6th Global meeting of NGOs advocating for road safety and road crash victims in Greece.
Training of motor drivers and public driver cooperative leaders
HPR in partnership with Rwanda National Police (RNP), FERWACOTAMO and Special Guarantee Fund) organized a road safety campaign with the theme “Road safety, contribution to the development of our nation”. The campaign targeted 1500 motorcycle drivers’ members of FERWACOTAMO from 3 districts of Kigali City.
Social media campaign
Road safety messages were designed and spread via HPR’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. 17,498 people were reached out during the road safety social media campaign.
Stakeholders consultative meetings
HPR in partnership with IMCC-FAIR organized 2 consultative meetings in July 2018 and July 2019. These meetings brought together stakeholders working in road safety to discuss road traffic crashes/injuries burden in Rwanda and identify sustainable interventions.
52 Weeks Road Safety Campaign (Gerayo Amahoro)
Healthy People Rwanda has joined other partner institutions in a 52-week National road safety campaign that aimed to promote road safety amid alarming rates of road traffic crashes’ mortality in Rwanda.
The campaign dubbed “Gerayo Amaharo” meaning “arrive safely” was initiated on May 13th 2019. Activities that marked its beginning were rolled out in major Taxi Parks across the country. In addition, 576 driver cooperative leaders were trained across the whole country.
Many people held placards that carried various messages with a common and strong call for action to everyone in taking part to make Rwandan roads safer. Social media threads were created to dovetail the face to face education with the following hashtags #GerayoAmahoro and #ArriveSafe.
Knowing that 80% of accidents are a result of reckless driving such as over speeding, drunk driving, HPR contributed to the campaign with zeal to be among the frontline team to curb road traffic accidents in Rwanda.
Rwanda National Police-Healthy People Rwanda partnership
In April 2019, Healthy People Rwanda has signed a Memorandum of Understanding enhancing a 5 year joint partnership on road safety projects and interventions in Rwanda. The expected outcomes is generation of tools and interventions for road safety and first aid to ensure healthy and more prosperous communities in Rwanda through evidence based medical practice.
Road safety week 2019
The United Nations Global Road Safety week occurred from 6th to 12th May with the theme “leadership for road safety”. HPR in partnership with Rwanda National Police organized a walk which ended with a meeting at the national stadium to celebrate the day and raise awareness on proper road use behaviors.
Conferences
2nd World Youth Assembly for road safety
Youth for Road Safety (YOURS) has taken the initiative to gather 200 young road safety delegates from 74 countries across the world for the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety hosted in, Sweden, HPR delegates also attended. The following were some of the participants’ thoughts Stockholm:
Nattasuang Phakkawan from Thailand said″ The Thai red cross asked me to attend this assembly. I really liked the energy and motivations that they gave to all of us. Our voice could possibly make something change in a better way. And now I go back to Thailand full of energy to say 'Enough is enough ' Time for change”
Sammi Li from China shared: “I was impressed by the high energy, high level of engagement, very positive spirit from young and bright leaders and inspired by the modern format of the event (e.g live street art and rap music performance). That’s the way to go when you want to create fun and real inspiration to incite youth to like and to retain the given message on a given topic. Great mix of presentation of facts and practical workshops related to SDGs where each delegate made at least one concrete commitment to change. The most important part of the event was obviously the Global Youth Statement which will serve as a guiding star to the young delegates driving action in their hometown.”
Linda Kemoli from Kenya “The WAY (World Youth Assembly) was insightful. I learnt so much from the panel discussions as well as the parallel one and interacted with people from nations across the world who are passionate about the same cause (road safety). I felt driven to continue working towards this cause (road safety), feeling reassured that there are many other young people around the world that are doing the same!”
Dr. Farah Naz Rahman from Bangladesh “I work in a public health NGO of Bangladesh which works on road safety. I got to know about the 2nd World Youth Assembly from my office contacts. It was very different from the regular conferences. It was so vibrant, youthful and very engaging. I love the instructiveness and diversity of this conference. Meeting youth all over the world doing commendable work on road safety was highly inspiring”
Daniela from Argentina ``It was an interesting experience. Got to know more about other ways to promote road safety through the experience of the other young people”
Tendekayi Marapara from Zimbabwe “It was a great platform to learn how others are doing, learning how to starrate schools and appreciating the success stories from other youths. The future lies in our hands”
Providence Klugan from Ghana “It was amazing! The ability to interact and learn from fellow age mates and put together a statement claiming our space. I really enjoyed the energy, there wasn't a single dull moment!”
Maolin Macatangay from Philippines said " I am part of the Global Youth Task force which organized the 2nd World Youth Assembly for Road Safety. I found the assembly to be an immense success. I saw that youth delegates were extremely passionate about their commitments for safer roads and safer mobility. It leaves me to wonder whether they've always had this energy and was just waiting for the perfect platform to express it. Everything was a breath of fresh air and it left me with so much hope for our society and the next generation."
Steve Manyozo from Malawi who stated “The 2nd World Youth Assembly on Road Safety was an amazing opportunity for a galvanized youth movement for the course of road safety. The big foot print for me was when we (the youth of the world) delivered the Youth Statement on Road Safety at the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference”
The 3rd Ministerial conference for road safety happened from 18th-20th February 2020. under the theme “achieving global goals 2030”. It was organized by the Sweden Government in partnership with the World Health Organization and was attended by about 1700 delegates from 140 countries, including Ministers, Senior officials from United Nations agencies and representatives from Civil Society Organization, academia and private sector. Within this framework, two delegates (Dr Innocent Nzeyimana & Dr Ami Nkumbuye) represented Healthy People Rwanda during the conference.
6th Global meeting of Non Governmental Organizations advocating for road safety and road victims, Greece
From 9th to 13th April 2019, a meeting of NGOs working in road safety was organized by the Global alliance of NGOs for road safety held in Greece. The meeting entailed 270 attendees, 76 countries represented, and 23 workshops. HPR which pertains to the alliance sent delegates to showcase the organization’s progress and learn from others.