Coalition caps off Art for Road Safety Challenge

From July 6th to July 22nd, the Global Youth Coalition in partnership with TotalEnergies Foundation launched the Art for Road Safety Challenge, the first art challenge that raises awareness on road safety and sustainable mobility in the African continent. The challenge featured different countries for three weeks starting with Egypt from July 6 to 8, Uganda from July 13 to 15, and Senegal from July 20 to 22.  

Egypt week featured Egyptian graffiti artist Ahmed Fathy (Elna2ash). Ahmed is an internationally celebrated artist because of his work that often represents famous Egyptian figures. He creates graffiti throughout the streets of Downtown Cairo. His message during the Art for Road Safety challenge was “lower speeds save lives” and focuses on speed and how it is the main killer on the roads.

The challenge was to reinterpret Ahmed’s graffiti through a drawing, painting, or sketch. A total of six submissions were recorded for the challenge.

The following week featured Ugandan artist Sylar Robert Ssempijja. Robert is a dancer, breakdancer, choreographer, and teacher. He uses dance and art to tackle cultural issues in Uganda which include road safety. His message for the week was “Protect your head. Save lives”. It focused on the importance of wearing helmets with a special focus on the boda boda drivers in Uganda.

The challenge was to reinterpret Robert’s helmet dance to the tune of Yambala Helmet produced by Youth Arts Movement Uganda (YAMU). The week gathered 14 video submissions with one music video produced by YAMU. 

The final week of the challenge featured Senegal with Dieynaba Sidibé (Zeinixx) - the first female graffiti artist of Senegal. Dieynaba is internationally known for her mural work empowering women. For the art for road safety challenge, her message was “Save lives: Slow Down” to show the importance of low speeds. 

The challenge for Senegal week was to reinterpret Dieynaba’s graffiti that promotes 30 km/h speeds. The week garnered 6 official submissions with additional ones sent over after the week. 

The objective of the art for road safety challenge was to get more young people in efforts to promote road safety and get more young people involved through an artistic intervention like graffiti, drawings, and dance.

“This social media challenge gives young people an opportunity to create inspiring and creative content for safer mobility” - Floor Lieshout, YOURS - Youth for Road Safety.