Chitetetzo is an adolescent-focused, arts-mediated, rights-based and advocacy intervention designed to decrease the frequency of road traffic collisions.
What is Chitetezo?
Chitetezo is an adolescent-focused, arts-mediated, rights-based and advocacy intervention designed to decrease the frequency of road traffic collisions. It aims to decrease the frequency of road traffic collisions and subsequent deaths and injuries. Chitetezo is based on evidence from three previously unconnected areas: rights-based youth work, road safety education, and intergenerational approaches to co-producing local community development agendas.
How do we think it could work?
Chitetezo is delivered over approximately 10 sessions, to groups of 8-10 adolescents, who become road safety ‘Champions’. The intervention sessions lead to the development of (one or more) large murals, painted by the Champions, which depict the community’s current road traffic dangers, and the road safety behaviour and infrastructural changes they perceive are required to decrease the frequency of road traffic collisions in their area. The Champions use these large, but mobile, art works to engage first with young people to improve road safety behavior, and then with civic society (Local and National Government agencies) and other community members to lobby for identified local road infrastructural improvements and raise road safety awareness. If the intervention works as planned, there will be a variety of outcomes and impacts.
Feasibility study.
In the summer of last year (2019) a group of young people from Jacaranda School for Orphans, Blantyre, Malawi took part in the first Chitetezo sessions. At the end they presented their work in two engagement sessions – an exhibition and seminar.
The participants spoke strongly and persuasively to their audience of over 100 people about the challenges of road safety, what they could do, and what needed to happend to make the roads nearer their school safer.
The events were attended by over 100 people and were covered by national radio and television.
The exhibition and seminar led to a committed partnership between a multi-national corporation and a Mr Gerald Lipikwe, a local councillor. together they committed to undertaking road safety infrastruture improvements surrounding two schools in Limbe, Blantyre.
Short Term Outcomes
True to their word, within three months Councillor Lipikwe and Total Malawi had collaborated on several road infrastructure improvements around Limbe schools.
Next steps…
We are currently seeking funding to conduct further implementation and evaluation of Chitetezo across several schools. Watch this space!
This research is jointly funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) under the MRC/FCDO Concordat agreement, together with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
