Our regular columnist, Mr Brian Bilal Mwebaze publishes his first article with YOURS with a message from Africa on keeping safe on the road during this holiday season. A time to be festive and merry for many, Christmas is a massive deal in Africa and Brian offers us a candid expression of the importance of safety during this time.

Here at YOURS, we are always looking for ways to empower young people to speak out about road safety issues and give them an interntational platform to voice their views and opinions. We are very excited to announce that Mr Brian Bilal from Uganda, an active member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and self confessed 'public health addict' is joining YOURS as a regular fortnightly/monthly columnist to give his opinions on the road safety situation in the African region.

At YOURS, we endevour to capture all of our work with young people in a way that is easy to disseminate. With this is in mind, YOURS has created some unique videos of our global road safety workshop in action at the Muscat Youth Summit that took place earlier this month! You can see what we got up to in Oman and see the learning journey that our youth participants joined us on building the capacities of these young people to grasp the seriousness of road safety.

In the United States, the Graduated Driver Licensing programme could save over 2,000 young lives and have massive positive economic impacts. The Allstate Foundation License to Save Report, developed in conjunction with the National Safety Council, shows that if all states implemented comprehensive graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws, an estimated 2,000 lives could be saved.

This year, the 4th edition of the European Youth Forum for Road Safety (EYFRS) initiated some groundbreaking resolutions for the years ahead. Embedded in the programme was the award giving for the winning poster for Europe. This initiative was created by DG Move in collaboration with EYFRS organizers. Over 800 posters were designed by young people but only one could win. Check out the poster!

Earlier this week, the YOURS staff team were in attendance at the 3rd Muscat Youth Summit that took place in Muscat, Oman. This event brought together over 300 young people from around the world to discuss and take action on pressing global youth issues. This year, road safety was firmly on the agenda as YOURS delivered a day long workshop on the Global Road Safety Problem with a group of delegates.

YOURS is a long term advocate for peer-to-peer messaging, that being young people talking to young people about road safety issues. We know that a young person is more likely to absorb a message and act on it when it has been transmitted from a peer; a trusted friend or a person of a similar age that they can relate to. At the European Youth Forum for Road Safety, youth delegates share their message with other young people about keeping safe on the road.

4-7th December is the date for the 3 day residential Muscat Youth Summit taking place next week in Muscat, Oman. The event brings together thousands of young people from around the world to empower young people through interactive workshops, presentations and debates on youth development, leadership and participation. YOURS has the pleasure of running a day long workshop with young people at the summit on global youth and road safety issues.

We have drafted and adopted this Declaration in order to proclaim our commitment to address the problem of road traffic fatalities and injuries, and to urge Europe to take action to prevent road accidents. This is the robust sentiment at the core of the European Youth Declaration for Road Safety that was adopted by over 52 youth delegates at the 4th European Youth Forum for Road Safety 2011. Now, European Youth Ambassadors for Road Safety go back to their nations to share the declaration with key decision makers to influence change across Europe.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies (IFRC) met on 22-25 November 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland for their annual General Assembly meeting. The meeting brought together 186 national societies from around the world to discuss international priorities for the organization. This year, IFRC have put road safety on the agenda and commemorate the Decade of Action for Road Safety.

At the end of day 2 at the 4th European Youth Forum for Road Safety delegates from around Europe will depart with new knowledge, information and tools to implement road safety in their nations. Yesterday, we saw the adoption of the European Youth Declaration for Road Safety and delegates returned to the forum in high spirits to persevere with the road safety agenda of the final day of the forum.

A delegation from YOURS is currently in attendance along with over 40 European youth delegates at the European Youth Forum for Road Safety in Brussels, Belgium. Day 1 of 4th Edition of the European Youth Forum for Road Safety has already seen some momentous actions taking place that are set to pave the path ahead for sustainable road safety action in Europe with clear focus on road safety for young people. We report back on day 1 at the forum and some of the key highlights and learning points from the forum.

YOURS is happy to share with you our report to the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration that took place last week (14-15th November 2011) at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. The presentation is PREZI based and can be viewed at our link below!

20/11/11 is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) and today, YOURS launches its Embrace Life Photo Exhibition. During the WDR we mourn the nearly 1.3 million deaths on our roads and reminds us to embrace life and commit to road safety. We share with you this collection of inspiring pictures from people around the world who have shown us how they embrace life and commit to road safety. Check out our exhibition now.

Ban Ki Moon: "Each day, nearly 3,500 people die on the roads. Tens of thousands more are injured. Families are broken apart. The futures of young people are dashed. Road accidents have become the leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 29. This is an unacceptable price to pay for mobility". The World Day of Remembrance is an annual event that takes a moment to reflect upon the lives lost on our roads and to make conscious efforts to change the situation through road safety.

Last year, YOURS had the pleasure of attending the European Youth Forum for Road Safety in Brussels, Belgium. YOURS helped chair a road safety workshop as well as giving a presentation about the global youth network for road safety.

YOURS is proud to have one its active young spokespeople for road safety Mr Brian Mwebaze from Uganda report back from the 2nd African Road Safety Conference. Brian has written his own report from his own opinion and YOURS gives Brian the opportunity to provide his analysis from a young person's perspective. 

The sumbmission period for the Embrace Life Campaign is now over! We have received hundreds and hundreds of photos and we will now begin the process of branding each photo to explain how you embrace life and commit to road safety! YOURS thanks all participants for submitting their photos and taking the time to embrace life!

This Sunday (13/11/2011) at 23:59 is the deadline for the Embrace Life Campaign photo submission! We have received lots of photos already and we are so excited to showcase them on the last Sunday of this month for the World Day of Remembrace for Road Traffic Victims. We have included some of the pictures above and as you can see, they are a beautiful mix!