Zoleka Mandela advocates safety of Africa's children

By Kwamina Tandoh, GNA
Accra, Sept. 14, GNA - Ms Zoleka Mandela, Granddaughter of Nelson Mandela, says urgent action is needed to protect children on Africa's roads.

Ms Mandela, who joined the FIA Foundation, UNICEF and Amend, to launch a new report at a Forum on Safe and Healthy School Journeys in Accra, said every child deserves a safe and healthy journey to and from school.

The report titled: 'Step Change: An Action Agenda on Safe Walking for Africa's Children's,' shows that while three quarters of children walk to and from school they suffer severe burden of road traffic injury.

According to the Global Burden of Disease more than 85,000 African children and youth are killed or seriously injured on the continent's roads each year- a top five cause of death for the over-fives in many African countries.

Step Change outlines the life-saving policies and interventions, which are urgently required, prioritising investment for safe walking, through providing footpaths and safe crossing points, and through reducing vehicle speed by road design and traffic calming is a relatively low-cost but highly effective public health investment, says the report.

The report has been published by the FIA Foundation, the Amend NGO and the Global Initiative for Child Health and Mobility.

Ms Mandela who is also the Ambassador for the Global Initiative for Child Health and Mobility said road traffic injury is the single greatest danger our children face each and every day, which is entirely preventable.

'What we are asking for really is quite simple, we are asking for protection and safety, safe walking for all our children surely must be a fundamental right and must become a priority in policy making here in Ghana and around the world,' she said.

Ms Ayikai Poswayo, Programme Director Amend said Amend NGO is implementing road safety education and infrastructure programmes in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.

She said Ghana's greatest resource and hope are its children hence the needed protection for them.

'We need to do all we can to protect them on the roads and we know how. Now is the time for a real step change on the ground, we cannot afford to fail''.

In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Fiifi Fiavi Kwetey, Minister of Transport said as part of efforts to address road safety issues, government through the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) has been holding consultative engagements with stakeholders to build consensus on the most viable and sustainable strategies to address road safety challenges.

He said Government through the NRSC has successfully developed and printed Road Safety Textbooks and Teaching Manuals.

'To date, about 500,000 textbooks have been distributed to the Ghana Education Service with the hope of Government that Road Safety will soon be an examinable subject in the Basic Education Certificate Examination,'' he added.

Mr Kwetey said currently the Commission is also advocating and promoting the use of crossing aids popularly called the lollipop stand as well as supervising children cross the roads.

'As a society we have every responsibility to ensure that our children are protected and safe from road traffic crashes that threatens their survival and the realization of their potentials'', he said

The forum brought Ghanaian and international policy makers together to discuss the report's recommendations and advance the agenda to protect children on the roads across Africa.

The meeting concluded with a commitment to establish a national coalition for safe and healthy school journey's to explore how a more sustained effort can be made to protect children.

GNA