THE Road Accident Fund has trained youths across the country to assist it with its road safety campaign in various communities, especially in areas where they are located close to busy roads.
The fund is empowering the youth with opportunities to promote and raise awareness about safe road practices. A total of 173 out-of-school and unemployed youth across Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape have been trained as part of the RAF’s Comprehensive Road Safety Programme.
The youth will assist school learners in crossing the roads in the mornings and afternoons; spray livestock with reflective paint to increase visibility at night; cut vegetation that is growing on the sidewalks and educate learners about road safety to save the lives of road users in their communities.
The Fund launched the programme in August 2023, focusing on communities living closer to roads with the highest road accident fatalities to reduce road crashes and influence safer road use.
The initiative involved school competitions, edutainment, industrial theatre production, and youth dialogues aimed at increasing road safety awareness by learners and empowering the youth to become road safety ambassadors.
Winners of the school competition received prizes relative to each school’s needs. These included laptops for a computer lab, painting of a school, learner toilets, an inverter, a printer, speakers and a microphone, and literature books.
Youth projects commenced in July 2022, providing training, support, and stipends to the young people who are participating in the selected road safety projects.
Road users can look out for the youth in various areas, which include Nyavani, Thohoyandou, and Lebowakgomo in Limpopo. They will also be visible in Soweto and Soshanguve in Gauteng, as well as in Umlazi and KwaDukuza in KwaZulu-Natal.
In the Eastern Cape, they will be deployed in Mamfeneni, Colosa, and Umtata.
In these areas, school learners, elderly people, and road users with special needs are assisted when crossing the road. Apart from this, cows, donkeys, and horses are sprayed to increase their visibility at night, and vegetation making sidewalks unusable is trimmed to encourage safe use of the roads.
Participating youth are also enrolled in an ongoing Youth Driver Development Programme, where they are provided with free training and assisted to receive a learner and driving license as well as a Professional Driving Permit.
"We are proud to have inspired a new generation of road safety ambassadors," said RAF Chief Executive Officer Collins Letsoalo.
He added that this programme demonstrates the power of collaboration and commitment to road safety.
“We are encouraged by the compliments that we receive from community members and parents who believe that their children are now in safe hands, among other positive feedback."
The programme is implemented in partnership with the Safer South Africa Foundation. The current leg of the youth aspect of the programme will run until the end of July. Thereafter, the RAF will measure the impact of the programme in those high accident areas.
