EASST’s Moldovan partner, the Automobile Club of Moldova, held a series of events in early December 2014 to mark the ‘International Day of Persons with Disabilities’ with the purpose of raising awareness of the challenges faced every day by those with disabilities. This is an issue addressed by the ACM for two reasons – firstly, travel and transportation for people with disabilities is particularly difficult, and secondly that many injuries and lifelong conditions are caused by road traffic collisions.
On 3rd December 2014, all Moldovan organisations with a focus on disability issues met at the “ARTICO” centre to hold a charity fair. Visitors could buy handmade items and gifts with the proceeds going to support disabled persons. At the fair, a ‘Sport Festival’ was held involving ping-pong, billiard, and arm wrestling. The fair was an opportunity for representatives of the ACM to discuss road risks and challenges faced by this group of people. Using a questionnaire developed by the ACM and EASST, the team received information and data on mobility challenges and suggested improvements to increase access to transport and improve safety on the road. The participants expressed their gratitude to the ACM for their work in this area.
Serghei Afanasenco, President of Moldovan Disabled Sports Association, with the ACM’s Tatiana Mihailova
At the end of festival the President of Moldovan Disabled Sports Association, Mr. Serghei Afanasenco, and other representatives supported the #SaveKidsLive campaign being conducted within the Third United Nations Global Road Safety Week (to be held on 4-10 May 2015). With the ACM, they signed the boards with road safety messages.
On 5th December, the ACM in partnership with the puppet theatre “Foisor Fermecat” and National Patrol Police held their road safety show “Alex in The City” for children from the Community Centre of Disabled Children and Youth. The children were happy to learn the road traffic rules in such a funny way and meet Alex and other heroes of the show. The Police representatives demonstrated the importance of high vis reflectors for pedestrians and together with the ACM team and a costumed Zebra distributed reflectors to all the children.
Promoting the #SaveKidsLives campaign
The ACM made the following conclusion: these open minded and lovely persons highlight how precious human life is. Everyone must understand and be responsible for the actions and behaviour in road traffic, because on this depends not only your own life, but also lives of other people.
