Community Outreach Programme: 2002/2003

In 1999, as part of taking road safety to underdeveloped communities and empowering them to take ownership through active participation, the KwaZulu-Natal ASIPHEPHE Road Safety Project launched a Community Road Safety Outreach Program. This campaign targeted rural developing communities of KwaZulu-Natal where Community Road Safety Councils were established to form a link between the Department and these communities. The ASIPHEPHE Community Outreach Program is focused on our people’s most immediate needs, and it relies in turn on their energies to drive the process of meeting these needs. An enhanced sense of community participation and ownership of development programs thus become important steppingstones towards achieving this drive.

Social transformation is the context within which the concept of community outreach originates - as a government strategy towards securing maximum community involvement in social reconstruction, saving lives, and equity in resource and service distribution. The establishment of Community Road Safety Councils is a practical demonstration of bringing road safety and its management closer to the communities. It is a strategy that facilitates the realisation that the privilege to drive and use the road is enshrined in the responsibility to ensure that the road and the license to drive are shared resources and that communities themselves have to safeguard these entitlements.

The second phase of the ASIPHEPHE Community Outreach Programme will focus on training, maintaining and developing the existing Councils whilst establishing others inside urban townships and other sectors inside developed society. So far 3 urban Community Road Safety Councils have been established in urban areas.

Urban Community Road Safety Councils

The following areas have been identified for targeting:

A target of establishing 22 urban Community Road Safety Councils and re- electing 30 Rural Community Road Safety Councils has been set for the Financial Year 2002 -2003. There is going to be a need for production of another 5000 BP/ASIPHEPHE Training Guides. A sum total of R50, 000 will be required for this exercise and a proposal has been submitted to the Road Safety Directorate for this purpose. The same terms of reference (as reflected in the BP Training Brochure) will apply in the establishment of the urban and the four remaining rural Councils with adaptations where necessary. A formal constitution will be drafted that will formalise the arrangements and responsibilities of all the Community Road Safety Councils.

The 2002/2003 Year Plan

The following Year Plan which features various establishments, training workshops and project implementations has been planned for all the existing to be established Community Road Safety Councils:

MARCH/APRIL

FOUNDATION WORKSHOP
(2 nights / 3 days)

MODULE 1
Developing Good Governance in Communities

MODULE OUTCOMES
This workshop will provide participants with an introduction to the government’s Good Governance initiative. It will familiarise participants with the Community Road Safety Council constitution, focusing on good governance, code of conduct and democratic procedures as members of the Councils.

By the end of this module participants will understand, and be able to put into practice, democratic procedures. Participants will develop accountability to the Department of Transport, communities and sectors.

JULY/AUGUST

MODULE 2: Effective and Efficient Meetings
(1 night / 2 days)

MODULE OUTCOMES
This workshop will deal with effective and efficient Community Road Safety Council meetings. This will include the following:
Preparing an effective and clear agenda
Running a meeting in relation to the agenda
Writing minutes
Decision making
Problem solving

By the end of this module participants will be able to plan, conduct and record a range of meetings to achieve development goals. These include, CRSC committee meetings, community meetings, ad hoc work related meetings, one on one meetings, interview and learning group meetings. Participants will also learn the following additional skills:
Conflict resolution
Problem solving
Presentation
Communication

SEPTEMBER (PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS ALLOCATION HAS BEEN GIVEN TO RSE FOR COMMUNITY AWARENESS FUNCTIONS)

FIRST AID TRAINING FOR MEMBERS OF THE CRSC AND MEMBERS OF THE TAXI INDUSTRY - (I have told Paddy that 500 000 can be used for public awareness participation).

There is an urgent need for developing First Aid Emergency skills in developing societies. Lack of adequate health services, slow reaction times by ambulance services and long distances between communities and the nearest places of health care, all pose a threat to community life. Developing societies do not only rely on the taxi industry for transport but also during emergency and life threatening situations. Many a times a knocked pedestrian is rushed to hospital by taxi, and again (this time away from the road) many a pregnant mother is sped by taxi to the nearest place of health care during labour. It is still going to be some time before Ambulance and other Emergency Services are firmly established in developing societies and at reasonable response times.

Implementing a training program that looks into developing First Aid and Emergency Skills in the taxi industry is thus an appropriate step towards saving lives and avoiding serious injury. It is the one of the strategies that KwaZulu-Natal has to explore in bridging the gaps of structural inequalities as discussed earlier. Further, as the taxi industry is a business sector that has a major and direct impact on society, an initiative that is successful in promoting co-operation and enhances the effective functioning of the industry will contribute directly to economic growth in the region and consequently contribute to social stability.

The overriding objective of the program will be to establish on-going mechanisms through which the KwaZulu-Natal Road Safety Directorate and the Taxi Industry can jointly investigate and intervene in road safety issues and problems within the taxi industry and local communities towards formulating solutions and policy actions.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER

MODULE 3: Development Planning
(2 nights/ 3 days)

This workshop will enable participants to develop business plans. It will cover:
Problem identification and analysis
Planning
Prioritisation
Conducting surveys and needs assessment
Budgets
Cash flows
Monitoring

By the end of this module participants will be able to serve as resource people in communities.

SEPTEMBER/DECEMBER/JANUARY 2002

OMELA NGASEKHAYA / ALCOHOL ROAD BLOCKS (Inside developing societies)

Statistics point out that the majority of pedestrians killed are from developing sectors of our society and that most of these incidents are linked to alcohol consumption. The Omela Ngasekhaya programme was introduced as a logical extension of the ASIPHEPHE Adult Education Programme to promote road safety and to link road collisions to alcohol consumption. Omela Ngasekhaya targets patrons of township taverns and shebeens. The patrons of taverns and shebeens are not discouraged from drinking, rather they are educated about the dangers of drinking and walking. They are also encouraged to patronise drinking venues as close to home as possible.

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