Walk wIth me
LED BY oliva nalwadda from uganda
The “Walk with me: Healthier and Greener journeys to School” project seeks to promote active mobility among children in Mbale City, Uganda.
Children of a school-going age pay the highest price for mobility on Uganda’s roads. The journey of these students to and from school account for >50% of all child pedestrian deaths. The project will help empower children to become safe road users, national advocates for safer roads, and active mobility champions with a keen focus on walkability. The project will implement a multi-sectoral approach that merges the education, health, and transport sectors to ensure a sustainable and holistic approach to promoting safe walkable journeys to school.
Road safety education efforts will be conducted in three schools through the road safety education curriculum. The project will introduce a walk-with-me ‘buddy system’ to promote walkability by increasing real and perceived safety on the road. Initiatives for mass awareness such as radio talk shows and community dialogues ‘Kimeeza’ will also be conducted.
Photo from Full Time Explorer Blog
ABOUT THE PROJECT LEAD
Oliva is a researcher, public health advocate, and road safety champion with over 8 years in designing and leading local actions geared towards youth empowerment in road safety promotion. She is the founder of Uzima Ari Uganda, an organization currently fast-tracking the realization of SDGs 3, 4, and 13. Oliva also currently serves as a Youth Leadership Board Member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety.
”I am inspired by the desire to create an equal and livable world for all with children, women, and youth at the center of development.”
PROJECT UPDATES
Project lead Oliva Nalwadda and her team from Uzima Ari conducted “hotspot mappings” that were led by learners with disabilities.
This was done in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), the Mbale District Engineers, the Traffic Police, Mbale District Education Office Department of Special Needs, and Safety and Health Association of Uganda (SHAU) to identify areas for modifications.
Uzima Ari partnered with local government officials from Mbale City to introduce the Local Actions project “WalkWithMe: Healthier & Greener Journeys” with learners with disabilities, focusing on the topic of walkability advocacy, especially in Mbale.
During the school visits, Uzima Ari also embarked to train 50 learners with disabilities as road safety advocates and trainers for the Training of Trainers (ToTs) Programme. Using sign language, the learners shared with traffic officers some of the challenges they face on the road.
As part of the Disability-Inclusive WalkWithMe project, Uzima Ari partnered with traffic police in Mbale to sensitise boda boda riders on safe road user behaviour in school zones. During sessions, learners with disabilities share their devastating experiences on the road.
The training was about risky road behaviours with a particular focus on safe speed within school zones and and drunk driving in collaboration with the Uganda traffic police and the in-school trainers.
PROJECT GALLERY
