Kunhadi celebrates its 10th anniversary during a regional road safety conference
A decade after it was founded in October 2006, Kunhadi celebrated its Tenth Anniversary during a Regional Road Safety Conference on November 10 under the patronage of the Minister of Tourism H.E. Michel Pharaoh, at the Four Seasons Hotel – Beirut.
Experts in different fields representing international and local organizations gathered together to discuss international, regional and local road safety statuses and future plans. Representatives of the Moroccan and Jordanian governments were among the guests, as well as representatives of the IRU Portugal.
Kunhadi president Mr. Fady Gebrane opened the ceremony with a speech thanking guests and supporters and announced the launching of a new project in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism and in cooperation with the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nigh-Clubs & Pastries in Lebanon entitled “Save The Night” (STN). This project aims to improve the safety of nightlife in Lebanon and bringing down the number of fatal and non-fatal traffic crashes caused by drunk and fatigue driving.
Gebrane explained that the project rests on four pillars:
1- Raising nightlife standards through training and behavior codes
2- Improving the Taxi service through training and behavior codes
3- Fatigue driving awareness
4- Changing the perception of the use of taxis and make it appealing.
The Minister of Tourism H.E. Pharaon praised Kunhadi for the work and awareness the organization has achieved over the course of 10 years and encouraged restaurants and nightclubs to follow behavior guidelines developed by the Ministry and the NGO in collaboration with the Syndicate of Restaurants in order to protect young party-goers.
Experts from the World Bank, World Health Organization, FIA Foundation, UN-ESCWA and the Global Road Safety partnership discussed the global and regional status of road safety. The Secretary General of the National Road Safety Council was joined by the Director General of the Traffic Management Office and the Chief of Traffic Division in the Internal Security Forces to discuss current and future plan of implementing the new traffic law in Lebanon.
A handful of private companies who collaborated with and sponsored Kunhadi’s projects joined the conference to demonstrate the benefit of Community Social Responsibility on both the community and corporation.
Panelists from the American University of Beirut and Université Saint Joseph took part of the conference to talk about road safety in higher education as well as explain studies conducted in Lebanon in relations to risky driving behavior such as aggressive and drunk driving.
Lebanon’s rally champion also took the stand to explain in details safety measures adopted to protect racers and how motorsports champions can influence young speed lovers to restrict racing to specialized tracks.
The conference concluded on eleven recommendations the participants agreed on, highlighting the importance of reinforcing and empowering the National Council of Road Safety, in addition to stressing on the urgency of the private sector to get heavily involved in road safety if the world is to decrease the road traffic death toll by half before the year 2020, as per the objective of the Decade of Action for Road Safety campaign launched by the UN in 2011.
Conference slideshows are available to download on the following links:
Session 1 - Global status, challenges and development of road safety: http://bit.ly/2gOnGYv
Session 2 - Regional experience in Road Safety: http://bit.ly/2h2j2qB
Session 3 - Lebanese plan to address Road Safety: http://bit.ly/2gPYgHE
Session 4 - NGOs in Lebanon: http://bit.ly/2gPWNB2
Session 5 - Road Safety in Academia: http://bit.ly/2hpiAjt
Session 6- Corporate Social Responsibility and Road Safety: http://bit.ly/2hfMB7e
Session 7 - Motorsports and Road Safety: http://bit.ly/2gwBBmW
