Safer School Zone improvements celebrated in Zimbabwe

In a recent LinkedIn post, Youth Advocate Tendekayi Marapara celebrated the implementation of road improvements around a local primary school as part of the Safer School Zones project, implemented in Zimbabwe. A video summarising the project and its importance to the school community has just been released, highlighting the life-saving road improvements that have been implemented around Glenview 8 Primary School.

The SSZZ initiative as goal to collectively act towards safer mobility and reducing road infrastructure risk for children walking to school by end of 2025. Its objectives are to advocate for a maximum speed of 30km/h around school zones, to build a strong road safety coalition locally with the youths, Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe and other stakeholders with the aim of influencing policy makes and making real challenges to the problem, and to ensure a 3-star or better safety rating at Glenview 8 Primary school with the main aim of adopting 3-star safety rating or better as a design standard.

The project was one of the 2022 Local Actions winners, a short-term or mid-term grassroots action plan oriented to address the most pressing issues in the city or area. It must have a tangible contribution to the Global Youth Statement for Road Safety achievement and a clear connection with the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030. Projects must be conceived, led, and implemented by young people (18-35) and focused on one or more of the four priorities: community mobilization & awareness, advocacy, peer-to-peer empowerment, and/or infrastructure change.

Watch the video below