DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tanzania\u2019s main city Dar es Salaam did not have traffic signs, speed bumps or footpaths outside many schools, although children walking to class were being hit by cars on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So SARSAI, a small non-profit program in Africa, got the government\u2019s permission to install these features itself, reducing child injuries by 26 percent in the focus schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, the program won a $250,000 award to expand its work from the U.S.-based World Resources Institute (WRI) which launched the Ross Prize for Cities this year to recognize achievements in urban transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a lot of the development world, when people think of cities they don\u2019t often think of children – and when they do the vast majority thinks in terms of playgrounds,\u201d said Jessica Seddon, Director of Integrated Urban Strategy at WRI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLooking at that movement between home and school and the ease of navigating the city when you\u2019re three feet tall was a fresh perspective,\u201d she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SARSAI, which stands for School Area Road Safety Assessments and Improvements, started its work in Dar es Salaam in 2012, focusing on the most high-risk schools and collecting traffic data on what interventions might help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It now works in nine African countries and is shifting toward advocacy, showing governments that simple, low-cost measures can save lives, said program director Ayikai Poswayo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRoad safety is one of those issues which doesn\u2019t get as much attention as it should considering the problems it\u2019s causing in Africa,\u201d Poswayo said. SARSAI is just one program of the road safety-focused charity Amend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for people aged 5-29 worldwide, and Africa has the highest rates per population, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dangers are due to many factors including poor planning, poor infrastructure and weak law enforcement, said Poswayo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of the day it really can\u2019t be a small NGO like us putting in safe infrastructure at school areas,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some progress has been made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Namibia\u2019s capital Windhoek, SARSAI convinced the city to reduce speed limits in school areas. In Ghana\u2019s capital Accra, it helped the mayor\u2019s office draft a pedestrian action plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBecause it was so easy to see how this could be done in many more places, that was a big appeal,\u201d said Seddon of WRI.
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DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tanzania\u2019s main city Dar es Salaam did not have traffic signs, speed bumps or footpaths outside many schools, although children walking to class were being hit by cars on a regular basis. So SARSAI, a small non-profit program in Africa, got the government\u2019s permission to install these features itself, reducing child injuries by 26 percent… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3587,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3586\/revisions\/3587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}