Waka FIne to school
by Tevoh Ndingwan from cameroon
In Cameroon, road crashes cut short the lives of young people as they play, shop, ride, or even get an education. A huge chunk of road traffic victims in the country are largely made up of primary and secondary school students.
The project “Waka Fine To School” looks to integrate the Safe System Approach to provide safer routes to school for students thus resulting in a reduction of injuries and fatalities in the area which is predominantly used by students. The project will utilize a bottom-up approach which seeks to adopt safer road infrastructure, safer speed limits, and safer road user behavior for both non-motorized and motorized road users. The project also advocates for policy changes that can better protect youth.
The project will map school zones, create risk maps, implement the Star Rating for Schools (SR4S) methodology pioneered by the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), and lead youth campaigns that use the slogan 'WAKA FINE to School". The goal is to implement road safety infrastructure interventions which will result in the creation of school signs, enforcement of speed limits, and the maintenance of pedestrian crosswalks in ‘risky locations’.
Photo from VOA News
ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD
Tevoh holds a Master's Degree in civil engineering and works as a road safety engineer. He performs road safety audits and inspections in rural and urban areas in Cameroon while coordinating regional road safety public education programs and campaigns. Through his work, he can analyze and prepare safety reports on road safety.
He faced different road safety challenges while commuting to schools and witnessed the various crash incidents his colleagues have suffered. His Master’s study focused on highlighting safety issues and countermeasures that can be applied on school routes, universities, and public areas in major cities around Cameroon. His road safety research has fetched him an audience at the national and international levels. Asides from road safety, He is Also honing skills to address mobility and climate problems.
PROJECT UPDATES
With Star Rating for Schools Methodology, project lead Tevoh Ndingwan and his team from Open Dreams went to different school zones to assess the roads the students took to get to and from school. The data they gathered will be used to suggest road improvements to be implemented in Yaoundé school zones in coordination with local authorities and communities.
The team also invited other young leaders to participate in the assessment, providing them with training sessions that included online iRAP courses and on-site activities with practical work on assessing school entrance safety.
PROJECT GALLERY
