Local actions winner leads awareness campaigns in Uganda

For her local actions project, Oliva Nalwadda and her team UZIMA ARI, are leading awareness campaigns. One of the ways Oliva and her team are doing this is through radio talk shows.

Among the topics usually discussed include; the importance of reducing speed limits in school zones, the importance of low-speed streets as the message delivered during the 6th UN Road Safety Week, and more. 

Apart from the radio talk shows, Oliva and her team also conducted project inception meetings across three primary schools in Uganda to talk about her local actions project, Together for Safer School Journeys. The schools include Getrude Academy primary school, Busiya primary school, and Buwenge Township academy. 

The meetings were participated by local traffic police, school administrators, community leaders, and students. Going into how each stakeholder can support the project, the meetings focused on the aims, activities, and work plan for the Together for Safer School Journeys project

Students were also given the opportunity to share their concerns and experiences with traffic police officers and the other groups present.

To get the public more involved, Oliva and her team partnered with local traffic police so they can conduct road safety-focused community dialogues. They also led speed awareness drivers for taxi drivers and boda boda riders as these groups drive the most common forms of public transport in the area.

One of the major community dialogues was held in Kagoma Subcounty which was attended by 40 boda boda and taxi drivers. This was one of the target communities and stakeholders.

Because of the pandemic, some of the other awareness efforts were stalled – especially those that involved conversations with students and other young people. Despite this, the team managed to implement milestone activities such as meetings with the local government that resulted to support of the awareness campaigns during the lockdown.