Following the inaugural Road Safety Awareness session targeting children aged between 6 and 10 years, UNIFIL’s civil affairs section in collaboration with the local NGO Kunhadi and UNIFIL’s Italian and Tanzanian military police units, conducted the second round of their Road Safety Awareness campaign targeting 280 15 to 17 year olds at the Tyre Co-educational Secondary school.

This time around Kunhadi’s vice president Mrs. Lena Gebran had prepared a different presentation with a stronger approach to reach the hearts and minds of these teenagers. A 70 minute presentation was put in motion, and all eyes were locked on the screen for the entire time.

“I started the presentation with a short movie about my son who died in a car accident. It is an emotional beginning in order to grab their full attention” explained Mrs Gebran. Although she was devastated after losing her son, Mrs. Gebran decided not to quit on life and make use of her tragedy.

It was obvious she put her heart and soul in the presentation. She was able to make her audience envision the tragedy and misery they would bring upon their parents and families if they were to become reckless drivers.

Once she had the teenagers’ emotional attention, she shifted the focus on cold hard facts, byshowing them how accidents occur and how easily one is killed or severely injured. She stressed the importance of wearing a seat belt and showed them how grave the consequences could be when a driver doesn’t wear one.

The instructions on road safety continued with special attention to speeding. Mrs. Gebran explained how speeding increases both the likelihood of a crash and the severity of an injury.

Drinking and driving, even if it were just 2 glasses,decreases the field of vision; slows the brain functions, reduces your ability of judgment, gives you false confidence, and makes you sleepy.

For motor biking lovers, not only did she urge them to wear the helmet but also to change it every three and a half years, even if it wasn’t subject to an impact during that period.

And regarding the most recent and most dangerous trend “texting while driving”, Kunhadi’s vice president tried to explain its gravity in another way.

“Imagine yourselves driving blindfolded for 12 meters! That’s what texting and driving comes to.”

The director of the school Mr. Hassan Ezzedine noted that this road awareness campaign is no less important than a mathematics and biology lesson, because if you learn it well then it can save your life.

The mayor of Tyre was represented by his vice president Mr. Salah Sibrawi , who lauded this initiative taken by UNIFIL’s civil affairs section. He added: “We should bring this campaign to all our schools in Tyre”.

UNIFIL’s military police took part in the awareness campaign by conducting road awareness exercises. The Italian military police, known as the Carabinieri, explained to the students how to properly intervene whenever an accident occurs to ensure everyone’s welfare and safety.

UNIFIL also presented the director of the school with flyers on important road signs and the importance of using the seat belts, for distribution and dissemination within the school.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article: Ghinwa El Deek
Photos: Pascual Gorriz Marcos
Video Producer/Editor: Suzane Badereddine
Video Camera Operator: Ghifar Charafeddine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------