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Namibian children petition UN to include road safety on development goals

Xinhua, May 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

More than 50,000 Namibian school children signed a petition Friday from the capital Windhoek appealing to the United Nations to include road safety on the next development goals.

The school children met at the Sam Nujoma Stadium where they handed over the campaign under #SaveTheKidsLives.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is the patron of the campaign.

Namibia is one of the countries in the world with a high road traffic accident rate. This year alone, according to the Motor Vehicle Fund, 226 lives have been lost on the country's roads.

Around 24 out of every 100,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa are killed by traffic accidents each day, according to the World Bank. The number is expected to rise by at least 80 percent by 2020.

In the last two years, deaths among children from road accidents in the region are expected to outstrip those caused by malaria and HIV/AIDS.

Last year, 117 children died in road accidents in Namibia, while this month so far, 18 people have died due to road accidents.

In countries like Nigeria and South Africa, the numbers are even higher due to fast urbanization and alcohol consumption among drivers. Victims include South Africa's late president Nelson Mandela's 13-year-old granddaughter Zenani Mandela, who was killed in a road accident in 2010.

Children from poor communities are identified as at the greatest risk, since they often live alongside the fastest roads and have to take dangerous routes to school.

The #SaveTheKidsLives campaign was launched in April this year by the Private Sector Road Safety Forum in partnership with the Automobile Association of Namibia, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, the Namibia Public Passenger Transport Association, MVA and National Road Safety Council.

The campaign seeks to highlight the dangers children face on the country's roads.

Deputy Speaker of the Children's parliament, Shaandre Finnies, who officiated at the event said their initial plan was to handover more than 10,000 signatures.

"These declarations will be handed over to the UN representative to Namibia, to which we as young people call them to action," Finnies said. Endi