With over five hundred children killed on the world’s roads every day, raising road safety awareness amongst kids is a key priority within the framework of the UN Decade of Action, which aims to see road deaths halved by 2020.
With this aim in mind EASST’s partner in Belarus, the Belarusian Auto Moto Touring Club (BKA), in cooperation with local road traffic police, has been working with a Minsk orphanage to help children learn the rules of the road.
On 26th April 2016 BKA presented an entertaining and educational programme which enabled children aged between 5 – 15 years old learn about road safety rules through fun and games.
The younger children were encouraged to draw pictures about road security while the older kids were given issue-related riddles to solve. The BKA team set up a role-play activity where children could play-act as police officers and drivers navigating ‘hazardous’ road conditions as represented by bouncing balloons that symbolised obstacles. This helped explain difficult situations on the road more clearly and encouraged children to find solutions.
Prepared broadsheets pairing up real road signs with comic interpretations were used to introduce road signs and encourage the children to remember them more quickly. They also watched a film about road traffic security and learned how to cross the road using the ‘Stop, Look and Listen’ model. At the end of the session kids were given sweets, t-shirts and flickers as a thank you for their active participation.
