Every morning as I wave my ‘ducklings’ off to school on their bikes I implore them to be safe on the roads – a fact they reminded me of when my daughter suggested Zusha! for this month’s charity donation.
In Africa road fatalities and injuries impact twice the number of people as major health endemics like malaria.
However, this story is not really mine to tell as this month we handed over the charity decision to the kids and they both researched and came up with some great ideas of where our money could do the most good.
So read on as my thirteen year old daughter takes the reins of our effective altruism efforts…
I chose Zusha! Road Safety Campaign as our monthly donation because I scrolled through The Life You Can Save effective altruism site and the Zusha! page caught my eye with its images. I read the details of the organization and I thought it was a really great cause, because this isn’t just a problem in Africa; cars, buses and public transport all over the world are crashing, speeding, and endangering the lives of their passengers. This may be a big issue in Africa but really, even in the most suburban, rich areas there are crashes. For the leading causes for death worldwide, road accidents come in at number eight, above stomach/liver cancer and malaria, and just below tuberculosis and diarrhoeal diseases. Each year, 1.3 million deaths occur from road accidents, meaning this is the leading cause for accidental deaths*. Public service vehicles in which Zusha! stickers were placed in Kenya had 25-50% fewer insurance claims and it is inspiring passengers to ‘zusha’, or ‘speak up/protest’. Therefore I chose Zusha! Road Safety Campaign as our monthly donation because I believe that it is making a large difference to road fatalities in Africa.
When telling us about her idea to donate to Zusha!, my daughter showed us this great video that is part of the awareness campaign the organization put together – watch here.
I love that this campaign encourages and empowers individuals to speak up for their own safety.
And it’s working.
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* World Health Organisation, Top 10 causes of death
