Newsroom

The Chief Executive Officer of the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative Helmet Vaccine Initiative (GHVI), Greig Craft, has arrived Nigeria to discuss with various government officials and road safety stakeholders the possibility of implementing the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative in Nigeria.

Craft who arrived Abuja on Saturday, March 6, came at the behest of PATVORA, a road safety NGO in Nigeria that is committed to this Initiative.
“The Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative represents a milestone opportunity for Nigeria and its roads,” stated Chude Ojugbana of PATVORA, “We are delighted to support Mr. Craft and the GHVI team in Nigeria; we are all here to save lives, and helmets are a vaccine against the preventable tragedy of road traffic crash deaths and serious injury.”

According to Chude road traffic crash rates continue to rise at an alarming rate in Nigeria, but this is a preventable tragedy. Helmets have proven to reduce significantly the chance of injury and death on the road, and public awareness education can fundamentally shift public opinion of helmet use, resulting in high helmet use compliance rates, and millions of dollars and countless lives saved.

Founding partners AIP Foundation, FIA Foundation and the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility see helmets as a vaccine to this public health issue. The Helmet Vaccine Initiative proposes to introduce helmet-wearing programs, piloted in Vietnam, to other - nations experiencing similar crises due to rapid modernization and motorization.  Key components of the initiative will include - programs Helmets for Kids and Safe Routes to School, policy and government technical assistance, traffic safety education, road safety curriculum development, research and evaluation, and setting up non-profit helmet assembly plants that employ the physically disabled.

The Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative was launched in Moscow, preceding the First United Nations Ministerial Conference on Road Safety. The Conference convened approximately 1000 participants including representatives of relevant United Nations agencies; leaders from NGOs and civil society; private companies; international road safety experts; and Ministers of Health, Transport, Education, Foreign Affairs. Among them Colonel Lawan Gwandabe, Chairman of the Federal Road Safety Commission of Nigeria; Osita Chidoka, Corps Marshall and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Mrs. Chidinma Chidoka, National President of ROSOWA and Olarenwaju Osho of Safety Alliance NGO. As a result of these historic meetings, the Ministers issued a call for a ‘Decade of Action on Road Safety’ from 2011 – 2020.

“Road traffic crash injuries and deaths are a serious problem in Nigeria, but they don’t have to be,” stated Helmet Vaccine Initiative CEO Greig Craft, “GHVI is a vaccine for this public health epidemic, and I trust that the necessary stakeholders will take this idea and run with it, improving the roads and the lives of everyone living in Nigeria.”

If Nigeria committed to this initiative, and to taking a proactive approach to combating traffic crash injuries and fatalities on its roads, it would be considered a pioneer in road safety, not only in Africa where there is a large burden, but also on the international level. As the Decade of Action on Road Safety commences, the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative is looking to effect real change – with hopes on Abuja taking a leadership role.

The Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative (GHVI) is an international movement founded with the aim of curbing the epidemic of traffic crash fatalities and injuries in developing countries worldwide. With the objective of “a helmet on every head in the ‘Decade of Action for Road Safety’”, GHVI partners with local NGOs, government and the private sector in Africa, Asia and Latin America to implement helmet donation and traffic safety education programs.

Created in 2001, GHVI’s partner in Nigeria, PATVORA, is a non profit, non-governmental service organization dedicated to improving safety of road users in Nigeria. It is a movement of concerned Nigerians interested in building a network of road users committed to working for road casualty reduction.
PATVORA members have committed themselves to invest their time and resources in improving road safety throughout the African continent with Nigeria as a focal point. By promoting tri-sector partnerships for road safety development, increasing public awareness on road safety and advocating enhanced funding of National road safety agencies in the continent, members of PATVORA are aspiring to be a voice of authority, with access to research, information and expertise on relevant issues on road safety. The network supports and encourages the delivery of enforcement-led road safety programmes.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/motoring/2010/mar/12/motoring-12-03-2010-002.htm