Save the Children is participating in Global Road Safety Week, 23-29 April 2014! The Week is dedicated to pedestrian safety. 

Why?

Road accidents are the highest threat and have a tremendous impact on children and young people. In South Africa, fatalities due to road accidents are estimated to be 14 000 per year and this morning, 18 children sustained injuries when a taxi overturn in Bloemanda (Bloemfontein). Globally, road accidents are the leading cause of death for young people aged 10 to 24, and by 2015 are predicted to be the leading cause of premature death and disability for children in developing countries ages five and above (World Health Organization). With nearly 1.3 million total road deaths each year, road accidents kill on the scale of AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. And like those killer diseases, road accidents affect the very populations that Save the Children serves--the young, the poor and the vulnerable.

What is Global Road Safety Week? 

Requested by the UN General Assembly, Global Road Safety Week will draw attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide, generate action on the measures needed to do so, and contribute to achieving the goal of the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to save 5 million lives.  Governments, civil society, academia, the private sector and the international community, are all encouraged to plan and host national and local events during the Second UN Global Road Safety Week. This milestone event is a unique opportunity to make progress on saving lives, and we hope that you will join in ensuring its success. 

How Can You Participate?

All children have a right to a safe walk to and from school. We will have activites on Facebook and Twitter all week.  If you like what you see, simply share your support of road safetly with friends and colleagues.  #walksafe #roadsafetyweek.

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Do your part in raising awareness today. Safety First. Every Journey.