AIP Head’s up session spotlights youth participation in road safety

Last week, April 8, YOURS - Youth for Road Safety Communications Manager Maolin Macatangay joined the AIP Foundation in their Head’s Up webinar series focused on youth participation in road safety. The session sought to share information, knowledge, and tools around youth and road safety as well as discuss and disseminate good practices when it comes to youth engagement at local, regional, and global levels.

During her intervention, Mao talked about the tangible efforts YOURS continues to apply to meaningfully engage and involve young people. She first highlighted the organization’s vision of seeing a world where no young person dies on the world’s roads. For this, she emphasized how young people needed to be included in all levels of policymaking, decision-making, and project management.

She cites the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety as one of YOURS’ key projects that bring together the services of the organization in terms of providing young people with resources, capacity development, partnership opportunities, and a platform to unite. 

The Youth Coalition currently has over 900 members from 104 countries worldwide. Through the Youth Coalition, youth leaders are able to receive funding, mentorship, capacity development opportunities, and access to partners in order to implement road safety projects through its Local Actions initiative. 

Mao invited the different stakeholders and participants to start trusting young people and seeing them more as partners rather than beneficiaries. “YOURS - Youth for Road Safety continuously works to create a world where young people do not die on the world's roads. The best way to do this is to meaningfully engage and involve young people in all stages of project management and decision-making. We believe that young people have the abilities, commitment, and passion to energize the road safety movement across the world. It's time we see young people not just as victims of road crashes but as assets who can help end the senseless loss of lives on the roads.” 

The AIP Foundation Head’s Up campaign is a call for students from different regions in Southeast Asia to get involved in promoting the campaign culture among young motorbike drivers. 

In Asia, motorbikes are one of the most popular modes of transport for young people. Through the campaign, AIP Foundation wants to ensure the safety of young people who often use motorbikes as modes of transport. 

The campaign is looking to raise awareness on how motorbike helmets protect the wearer’s head from severe forms of traumatic brain injuries. This is supported by the data explaining how data reduces the risk of head injury by at least 45%, brain injury by 33%, facial injury by 27%, and fatal injuries by 29%. 

Mr. Greig Craft, President of FIA Region II (Asia Pacific) shared, “as countries in the developing world continue to experience rapid economic shifts and turn to motorized mobilization, road crashes will continue to harm our innocent people, especially children and young adults. Substandard helmets – which offer zero head protection – continue to plague our local markets, killing and maiming our loved ones. This is as unethical as selling fake medicines. Through the efforts of organizations like AIP Foundation, FIA and FIA Foundation, the world is understanding that there are solutions.”