Save the date - East Africa's First Safe Community Conference - 19-21 November 2014!
13 December 2013
For immediate release
Dear Colleagues, Friends and Safety Practitioners,
The PeerCorps Trust Fund of Tanzania in partnership with the East African Network for Safe Communities and the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Community Safety Promotion, announces the First East African Regional Safe Communities Conference (EARSCC) "Usalama Kwanza" to be held in Arusha, Tanzania 19-21 November 2014. The conference theme is "the role of local communities and organizations in injury prevention and safety promotion".
Encompassing more than 150 million voices, the East African Community represents an emerging political, economic and cultural entity with immense potential. However, with this potential, comes a shared responsibility to first safeguard the well-being of populations during one of the most important transformations in the African region. One of the most pressing issues is that of safety.
Road traffic deaths in the region are 40 percent higher than in all other low- and middle-income countries and 50 percent higher than the world average. With the rapid increase in the number of personal vehicles and motorization, these figures are likely to increase. Traffic related deaths and disability constitute a major impediment to growth and place debilitating economic strains on health systems in the region. Rates of interpersonal violence and self-harm are also on the increase and threaten to destabilize important economic and social gains that have occurred in recent years. Few countries in the region have policies in place at national levels to safeguard persons from life-threatening injuries in the workplace, while in transit or in school.
The narrative is now about how we as communities can organize, innovate and engineer our way to safer safer environments via collaboration, partnership and sharing of strategies via collective leadership. The International Safe Communities Movement is one way forward. It consists of a structured community-based approach to prevent injury and violence and includes active participatory coalitions of citizens and governors alike. A shared vision, a shared voice and a shared destiny is what we aim to look forward to.
The Scientific Committee of the EARSCC invites Safe Community practitioners, researchers and activists to submit abstracts for presentation and poster sessions beginning December 13th, 2013. More information on the conference will be provided via the official conference website referred to below.
All inquiries regarding abstracts for the EARSCC should be emailed to the Conference Secretariat: earscc2014@peercorpstrust.org
