In the Kakheti region of Georgia, where tourism and the wine industry are central to the local economy, roads play a critical role in connecting people. It’s in this region that EASST’s Georgian partner the Partnership for Road Safety Foundation has successfully delivered its project “Road Safety Awareness Campaign in the Region of Kakheti, Georgia”. A safer more efficient transport network will not only stimulate activities in these sectors but also contribute to reducing poverty in rural areas.
The Partnership for Road Safety Foundation, with the support of the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure (MRDI), has been implementing a road safety awareness campaign among local communities living in the Kakheti region of Georgia in cooperation with Ministries of Education and Science and of Internal Affairs, local government, business and local media. The Roads Department of the MRDI has been implementing a Kakheti Regional Roads Improvement project with financial support from the World Bank since 2009. This new road safety project has worked to protect local communities in the vicinity of these road improvements from the higher speeds accompanying the rehabilitation scheme.
Over the last 2 months, the Partnership for Road Safety Foundation has delivered road safety training to school children in Kakheti. Training has been delivered to 20 schools in the region along with local traffic police representatives. The Partnership has also launched its ‘Don’t violate traffic rules!’ campaign and Facebook page. Introducing a road safety competition, it calls on pupils and journalists to work together to address road safety – with journalists providing analysis regarding road safety challenges and children taking photos or drawing pictures to illustrate the issues.
Within the project, a video commercial is being produced which will be televised on the central and regional TV channels in Georgia. The face of the video is popular actor Paata Gualiashvili who is from the Kakheti region.
The Foundation team members hope that this project – the first partnership project supported by the World Bank in Georgia in the field of road safety – will bring tangible improvements and a decrease in casualties on Kakheti’s roads. Further information will be published on our website in due course.
More photos and information is available on the campaign Facebook page
