New Providence Primary students get road-safety lessons

Students of New Providence Primary School have benefited from a host of important road-safety tips as a result of a partnership between the Insurance Company of the West Indies (ICWI), Optimist International – Caribbean District, and the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Mining.

During the road-safety exercise carried out on Wednesday, May 29 at the Barbican-based institution, claims manager at ICWI, Alrea Washington Hoilett, said the road-safety initiative is in alignment with the company’s core beliefs.

“ICWI formed this partnership because we see the devastation that improper use of the road can cause and we wanted to help in educating our children on how to use the road safely and, in turn, save precious lives,” Hoilet said.

Road safety and school programmes have been at the core of ICWI for many years, beginning with the introduction of Wizzie the Wise Old Owl that visited basic schools in the 1990s to teach children about the importance of being safe on the road.

Director of the Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Mining, Kenute Hare, engaged the students on how to properly use the roadways. According to him, there have been 177 reported road fatalities on the roads since the start of the year, with 15 of those being children.

Governor of the Optimist International – Caribbean District, Marcia Streete Hendricks, in her address, said her team is absolutely delighted that ICWI came on board to include the road-safety exercise at New Providence Primary as one of its initiatives in commemoration of National Road Safety Awareness Month in June.

The students also played an active role in the exercise and delivered a dramatic performance through a song titled ‘Buss a Chune Fi Di Road’, which informed the audience of key road-safety habits.

Written and directed by teacher and choir director at New Providence Primary, Nadine Ricketts, the piece was a fun and interactive way to get the children to understand the importance of proper road use. “When they learn through song, they tend to retain what they sing, and so that was my aim.”

The goal of the Road Safety Programme for the 2018-2019 Optimist Club Year is to reach and educate as many young individuals as possible on how to use the roadways safely. The road-safety programme has strong public education and training components which are provided to students through these types of campaigns.

This year, the month of June is being observed as Road Safety Awareness Month under the theme ‘Road Safety For Life’. Activities during the month will focus heavily on the most vulnerable road users, such as children, the elderly, motorcyclists and pedestrians.