First Aid Initiative Rwanda (FAIR) Project
What is the problem?
According to World Health Organization report of 2018, the number of deaths on the world’s roads remains to be unacceptably high, they are estimated at 1.35 million every year. Low income countries have 1 percent of the world’s vehicles but 13% of road traffic deaths while high income countries have 40% of the world’s vehicles and only 7% of all road traffic deaths.
The road traffic injuries are now the leading cause of deaths in children of 5-14 years and young adults of 15-29 years and third cause of deaths of 15-44 years old. More than half of road traffic deaths affect motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians
The study done in Rwanda in 2013, showed that 2589 of Road traffic crushes occurred and 4689 victims were involved. The majority of victims were male (94.7 %). Cars were the most involved (43.8 %), followed by motorcycles (14.5 %). Motorcycles had an increased risk of involvement in severe crashes and pedestrians and cyclists were more likely to have deadly injuries. One of the long term way of mitigating the road crashes is by education on prevention especially focusing on young people.
What have we done?
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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
946 students from 18 schools located in Kigali city have been taught through their health clubs. These students 52% were male and 48% were female. We have also trained 130 driving school students (65% were male and 35% were females). The teaching sessions have changed their behavior in traffic and given them confidence to use their learned skills and act in a situation if needed. Apart from those taught through health clubs or driving schools, 22 mass campaigns have been organized and conducted. 18 campaigns in high schools and 4 campaigns in driving schools have been conducted and we have reached an estimate of 6500 students of mixed gender.
Training of health club teachers on road safety and first aid
On each high school there are two teachers (a male and a female) in charge of health clubs, we have trained those teachers from 20 schools located in Kigali. These said teachers have committed to continue to teach and remind their students the rules of road safety and good behaviour and the road. This will help this young generation to grow already knowing good manners of road users.
Capacity Building
HPR has trained 30 volunteers on road safety and first aid and now they have skills to help others in the same field. We have participated in Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd (DUF) seminar in Denmark and in the sixth global meeting of NGOs advocating for road safety and road crash victims in Greece.
Training of motor drivers and public driver cooperative leaders on road safety and first aid
With the partnership with Rwanda National Police (RNP), and other stakeholder (FERWACOTAMO, Special Guarantee Fung) we have organized a campaign under the theme “Road safety, contribution to the development of our nation”. Through this campaign, we have trained 1500 motor drivers from three district of Kigali. In addition, through 52 weeks “Gerayo Amahoro” campaign, partnering with RNP and special guarantee fund we have also trained 576 driver cooperative leaders across the whole country. These drivers and leaders have been reminded bad behaviours of motor drivers to put them on risk of crash and good behaviours needed to be safe on road, on top of this we taught them the simple first aid skills which can prevent further injury or death when crashes have occurred.
Education of the public on road safety via social media
Through our social media we have reached 17,498 people. The articles/ messages shared were directly related to the teaching on road safety and encouraging the population to be safe on road as well as not to be the source of road crashes. Twitter and Facebook were most used.
Advocacy meetings
HPR and IMCC-FAIR held to successful advocacy meetings. One meeting was held in July of 2018 and a second in July of 2019. Advocacy meeting brings together stakeholders involved in road safety in order to discuss the burden of road crash related injuries and deaths and find solutions together.