12 Sep 2018

A youthful theatre group from Makwate has embarked on a campaign to create awareness on road safety through entertainment.

The group reaches out to the community by staging performances on road safety at schools and public activities.

The director of the drama group, Khumo Kgosidiakwa said in an inetrview recently that the group aimed at educating the community on road safety measures through drama.

He said dramatising their messages was entertaining and captured the attention of the audience.

“We are solely focused on issues that may compromise road safety,” he said, adding that sensitising the community on road safety was important in reducing accidents.  

He said the project was made possible through funding from the Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) Fund.

Kgosidiakwa said through the community grant programme, MVA had  funded the project with P120 000.

He said the programme was aimed at empowering local organisations to play a role and help government on sensitising the community on issues relating to road safety measures.

Kgosidiakwa said their road safety campaign was currently focused on touring schools in the Mahalapye Sub-district creating awareness on road safety through drama.

Furthermore, he noted that drama was more effective in imparting important messages to the targeted audience in the form of entertainment.

He also added that they had formed safety clubs made up of teachers and pupils in most schools to ensure that they also taught other pupils and fellow teachers on how to follow road safety measures.

In an effort to reach out to the majority of the community, Kgosidiakwa said the group has established a stall at the old Mahalapye mall where they conveyed road safety messages to the public.

“We also share with the community services provided by MVA Fund to motor vehicle accident victims,” he said.

He said among other services, MVA catered for the medical expenses of accident victims and also rehabilitated those who were left with any form of disability as a result of road accidents.

He also added that other information sharing platforms such as kgotla meetings were used by the drama group to reach out to communities in other villages in the sub district.
“We also take advantage of any other organised community event,” he said.

He further explained that the MVA fund was also liable to assist all dependents who suffered the loss of a bread winner as a result of a car accident, adding that the dependents of the deceased were limited to spouses, children below the age of 21 years, parents and other family members who were being financially supported by the deceased.

Kgosidiakwa urged the community to take personal responsibility of their behaviour on roads to reduce loss of life through accidents which end up affecting the growth of the economy of Botswana.

He said individuals could only contribute to a collective change of attitude if they acted responsibly by abiding by all road safety measures which would ultimately ensure safety to all road users. BOKHUTLO