The UN Global Road Safety Week, commemorated in Addis Ababa with the theme, Save Kids’ Lives (#SaveKidsLives) brings students and teachers of schools with high risk for road accidents due to proximity to heavy road traffic together with officials from the Ministries of Health and Transport, the Addis Ababa Bureaus of Education, Health and Transport and the Federal and Addis Ababa Traffic Police as well as WHO for a dialogue on saving children’s lives from road accidents.

The Dialogue held on 11 May 2015 had presentations on the current national and city road safety situation, progress and challenges, plans for the future. The school children called for action to save kids’ lives in the form of a staged radio interview, an emotionally charged drama depicting how children can easily become victims of road accidents if proper care is not taken by drivers, families and children themselves, and through the reading and signing of the Children’s Declaration and #SaveKidsLives Signboards. 

During the UN Global Safety Week, messages on children and road safety were transmitted in schools by the School Road Safety Clubs via mini media. 

According to the Addis Ababa Road and Transport Authority, each year in Ethiopia, road accidents kill more than 3,000 persons and injure more than 8,000. Six people die daily across Ethiopia from road accidents and in Addis Ababa, a person dies each day.

Dr. Pierre M’pele, WHO Representative in Ethiopia, concluded, “Every day, our children cross road and streets, use taxis and buses to go to school in the quest to become tomorrow’s leaders; and they are injured or killed by traffic accidents. So we should come together as parents, drivers, traffic police, teachers policy makers and regulators to save the lives of our children, our future leaders.”

One of the student participants, *Eliyas Dagnew, shared with WHO Communications his personal experience explaining motivationg for being part of his school's road safety team.  A few years ago, he crossed the road without checking oncoming traffic, and as he ran to escape from a car on his left, he got hit by a car coming in the opposite direction.  Luckily, he only broke his front tooth, which is crooked to this day as a reminder of the close call he had.  "You always have to be alert on roads," he told one of his friends at the end of his story. 

The UN Global Road Safety Week is a time to renew commitments to take robust action to implement the African Decade of Action for Road Safety, and keep roads – and cars – safe for children.

*Name changed.

For more information, please contact  
Mr. Wassihun Melaku Belay
Health Promotion Officer
WHO Ethiopia
Email:  belayw [at] who.int" target="_blank">belayw [at] who.int
Photo: WHO Ethiopia/Loza M.