Transferring road safety knowledge from road safety specialists empowering peer influencers in Cambodia: turning adversity into success during the pandemic

Abstract

During the global pandemic, an international road safety on-line collaboration between Australia and Cambodia was initiated to design, develop and deliver a virtual training course in June/July 2021. Ten highly experienced Australian and Cambodian road safety practitioners voluntarily combined with the enthusiasm and dedication of 53 committed Cambodian young peer influencers to achieve highly productive results. In the month following the training sessions, the youth syndicates produced promotional leaflets, banners, infographics and 10 short videos to deliver tailored messages to over 26,000 community members in villages and cities in Cambodia. The communications media included Facebook and TikTok as well as workshops and direct messaging at vaccination points. This program epitomises what can be achieved with the goodwill of road safety professionals using an international network to combine with enthusiastic, dedicated and committed youth peer influencers, all within a framework of voluntary community services. Actions, outcomes and the impact of this knowledge-transfer and youth empowerment initiative is presented as an example of a successful road safety intervention.