Local Actions winner Nkumbuye Ami leads road safety education drives in Rwanda

Local actions winner Nkumbuye Ami local actions project, the Traffic Care Youth Initiative Project, has kicked off with a series of road safety education drives around Rwanda. The project focuses on community awareness through education. The target audience includes primary and secondary schools around the Southern Province and the city of Kigali.

The education sessions began earlier this year during May. Ami and his team went to the Centre Scolaire Ellena Guerra Primary School to talk about road safety and the basics behind post-crash care. The first session was attended by 300 primary school students from the year one to six. 

Within the same month, Ami and his team proceeded to Groupe Scolaire Officiel de Butare to help equip students with the knowledge and skills to protect them as vulnerable road users. Bringing along copies of the Global Youth Statement, Ami talked about the Global Youth Coalition, the youth movement, and the demands of young people for road safety, sustainable mobility, and meaningful youth engagement. 

To do this, Ami and his team first presented simplified statistics of road safety – letting the students know that it is the leading killer of young people worldwide and the youth from low- and middle-income countries were often the most affected.

Talking about how to stay safe on the roads, the young students were taught about traffic signs and signals they should know and follow. 

The youth leaders let the students know that raffic signs help us to ensure the safety of everyone on the road by minimizing the risk of drivers running into other vehicles, pedestrians, or cyclists.

Apart from going to schools, Ami also works with a local radio station and launched a session called Local Actions Radio Talk Show where he discusses the road safety through the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety. 

The other schools Ami and his team had led sessions at so far include; Rango Primary School, Groupe Scolaire Kimironko, Groupe Scolaire Sainte Famille, and Nyanza Primary School.