NYAGATARE - School children in Nyagatare District have been urged to always observe road safety rules in order to avoid accidents.

The call was made last weekend during a two-day training session on road safety, organised by the Rwanda Red Cross in collaboration with Police in Nyagatare.

The students, together with traffic Police and Red Cross officials, painted zebra crossings at various locations along the Nyagatare-Ryabega road, as part of the training.

Carrying placards with road safety messages, the students held a peaceful march to raise awareness on road safety in the region. According to the Red Cross, the training was organised as part of activities to mark the World Disaster Management Day marked on October 13.

John Muvara, the head of Red Cross in the district, said road safety should be taken as part of disaster management and it should begin with the young generation.

"The reason we  and Police decided to train primary school pupils on road safety, as part of disaster management, is that road accidents are also disasters that claim people’s lives including children’s,” he said.

Marie Antoinette Uwimana, the head of the technical department in Red Cross Rwanda, told the students to be road safety advocates and extend the skills they had acquired to their peers in the district.

"You have been trained on how road accidents can be minimised. You should extend the knowledge you have acquired to other students,” she urged.

One of the students, Jane Kayitesi, said that the knowledge they had gained from the training was vital.

"We were trained on how to minimise road accidents. We studied traffic rules and how to observe such rules. We shall use this knowledge to train our fellow classmates who missed this opportunity,” she said.

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