From Selfie to #Safie: It Only Takes a Few Minutes to Help Save Kids’ Lives

Are you tired of everyone posting selfies? Try a #safie instead. You can help save a child’s life.

What’s a #safie?  A #safie is like a selfie, but you hold up a message about the importance of global road safety for children – and help get the message out about the Third United Nations Global Road Safety Week, May 4-10, 2015, which is focused on improving road safety for kids all over the world. 

How important is this issue? Well, deaths on our roads are a real health epidemic that’s currently being overlooked. Already, more than 500 children die every day in traffic crashes. And by the year 2030, more people around the world will die on our roads than from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria. We need policymakers to understand how serious the problem is – and take strong action.

Safe Kids Worldwide is participating in Global Road Safety Week and working hard to ensure that the voices of kids, parents and teachers will be heard. You can join this campaign to #SaveKidsLives by taking a few small steps to make a big difference: 

• First, you can READ the Child Declaration for Road Safety. Children from around the world helped write this declaration, demanding that policymakers take action to protect kids.
• Second, you can SIGN the declaration. Anyone can sign, including kids, parents, teachers, classrooms and organizations. The goal is for more than 100,000 people to sign the declaration before Global Road Safety Week in May. Every signature counts! You can also encourage your friends to sign the declaration by joining our Thunderclap.
• Third, you can SHOW that you care by taking a #safie. Just download and print the #safie signboard, write a message about the safety measures that are needed in your community, and then share your #safie online.
• Fourth, you can DELIVER this important message to policymakers who are in a position to make a difference. Try delivering the declaration to your mayor or other policymakers in your community, in the region, or at the national level. Safe Kids Worldwide even has a toolkit to help you create a meaningful event with policymakers.

If officials responsible for road safety hear from all of us about how important this issue is, they will take more notice of this critical issue, and they can implement important changes that will dramatically reduce child deaths and injuries on the road. That includes measures like: increasing the use of seat belts and child restraints, enhancing pedestrian safety, increasing helmet use on bikes and motorbikes, reducing speed, and creating safe zones around our schools. We must enact tough laws and insist on careful enforcement.

Anyone can post a selfie, but that’s only about you. So why not be the first in your community to post a #safie, which is about saving the lives of more than 500 kids each day? Surely we all have a few minutes to help save kids’ lives.

#Safies from the Safe Roads | Safe Kids Global Road Safety Summit: