New Road Safety Project Launched in Georgia
November 2008
The Partnership for Road Safety has recently launched its new project - “Youth Road Safety Education” - which will be conducted in 48 schools in Georgia. Approximately 10, 000 children and their parents will participate in the project which aims to raise awareness about road safety among school children and teenagers, as well as their parents, and to change their attitudes and behaviour in the streets and when driving.
The Partnership for Road Safety was established by 2006 Fellow Gela Kvashilava, with support of the FIA Foundation, to reduce road traffic accidents and make roads safer in Georgia. In late April 2007, the Partnership launched the UN First Global Road Safety Week in Georgia. The week long campaign received a large amount of media coverage at national and local level and succeeded in raising awareness of road safety issues in Georgia, particularly within the government.
As part of their new “Youth Road Safety Education” project, the Partnership for Road Safety has created handbooks for children and teachers, posters, and DVDs with movies about safe routes to school. The Partnership will also conduct a series of capacity building training courses for teachers. These courses will be arranged in six Georgian cities for a total of 365 teachers
Georgian school children taking part in the project
The initiative is being supported by the Georgian Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, and the First Lady of Georgia Mrs. Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs. Those sponsoring the project include: BP Georgia, the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands, Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, and the National Curriculum and Assessment Centre. Various nongovernmental, governmental and private organizations in Georgia are supporting and participating in this important project. The Partnership hopes to lay a solid foundation for road safety education in Georgia, as well as in other countries of the South Caucasus region.
The Partnership for Road Safety would like to thank all their supporters – the FIA Foundation, the John Smith Memorial Trust, the British Council and others - for their support of the Partnership since its establishment.
The John Smith Memorial Trust wishes the PRS every success with their new campaign and continues to support Gela and his colleagues in their campaign to raise road safety awareness in Georgia,
For further information please visit the PRS website: www.safedrive.ge