We are very excited to announce the recruitment of 11 new Youth Road Safety Champions from across the Caribbean region, who represent a new wave of road safety conscious youth. These National Champions join our ever-growing network of youth, who are passionate about the cause and want to take concrete action on the issue. This new group of National Champions came after the pilot in Anglophone Africa.
The Caribbean Champions have been recruited after a rigorous process finding the most passionate and well positioned youth, to represent their countries on road safety issues in the broader YOURS Youth Network for Road Safety. The champions came from all across the region representing its vast geographic and cultural differences. Along with the Caribbean Islands, the National Champions in the region are renewing road safety efforts in the region as YOURS continues to expand its work with Caribbean Youth.
This initative was taken up by Caribbean Region Coordinator for YOURS, Mr Erland George.
Erland said the following about the recruitment of these Champions in the Region: The countries of the Caribbean, like numerous others, universally confront a continuous problem of deaths on our roads. Every year road fatalities claim the lives of our friends and loved ones. Sadly, progress to address this problem is slow across the region and the figures show an inconsistent picture from one year to another. One of the ways to address the issues of road safety in the Caribbean is through the average citizen on the street being able to understand the issue and becoming responsible for his/her actions on the roads.
With the introduction of the National Road Safety Champions, we are hoping to equip a large cross section of youth and wider public of the region with the necessary road safety knowledge and skills.
The introduction of the champions will significantly enhance the work of YOURS in the Caribbean Region. Additionally, it allows us to have our eyes and ears on the ground in each nation through the champions. This will allow us to better be able to cater our programming to each individual as well as garner a regional perspective based on information gathered from each nation.
Director of YOURS Mr Floor Lieshout said: Youth all around the world are seeing these crashes affect their communities, and they are standing up to show the world that youth themselves will take some of the responsibility to reduce road traffic crashes. The recruitment of the Caribbean National Champions is a welcome addition to our growing network of youth ambassadors for road safety. We exist to not only work to bring road safety higher up the decision-making agenda, but also to support youth to engage in meaningful participation in promoting road safety. Our work in the Caribbean will be much richer now that we have these youth in our network.
Nickson C Barry is the YOURS National Champion for Grenada. I feel delighted to be given another important opportunity to serve my country, and the region by extension. Road safety continues to become an issue of serious concern in Grenada due to the increase of loss of lives via road accidents. I wish to call on the nation’s youth, traffic department of the Royal Grenada Police Force, and other stakeholders, to become front-runners in this call to action, as we work together to promote road safety and peace of minds.
The other advocates to make up the Caribbean National Champions for Road Safety include:
- GUYANA – Dillon Charles
- BARBADOS – Ebony Wilson
- DOMINICA – Dominique Newton
- TRINIDAD & TOBAGO – Shenelle Hills
- SAINT LUCIA – Kina Niholas
- ANTIGUA & BARBUDA – Amanda St. Romain
- ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES – Chelcia Ferdinand
- GRENADA – Nickson Barry
- HAITI – Steve Laurent
- THE BAHAMAS – Tyler Sawyer
- DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Radhameris Gómez
YOURS is delighted to work with young persons in the region to build their capacity and work along with them to improve road safety in the region.
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