Natalia Agre: We are changing the history of the Safe Wheel All-Russian Competition by giving hearing-impaired children a chance to participate

16 June 2015

On June 13, 2015, the All-Russian Children's Center Orlyonok held a grand opening of the Safe Wheel All-Russia competition of young traffic inspectors (YTI) in the Krasnodar region. The competition has traditionally brought together the best children's teams from all over Russia. This year, for the first time in the history of the competition, the Safe Wheel has welcomed a team of hearing-impaired children from the Junior Campus project – a social initiative on road safety by BMW, implemented jointly with Road Safety Russia.

In 2015, the Safe Wheel has marked its 40-year anniversary, but until now, there hasn’t been any physically challenged teams in the competition. Junior Campus organizers has decided to prove that traffic rules are there for all, and that hearing-impaired children are capable of participating in such competitions.

In this year competition, the Junior Campus team is participating non-competitively and not for winning places. It doesn’t mean that the main objective hasn’t been met – according to the RSRussia president Natalia Agre, “One of the most important questions in the road safety field is child safety and accessibility of education on traffic and safety rules from an early age. Right to safety is entitled to all children, regardless their social status or physical appearance. We hope that this initiative on engaging children’s teams with disabilities in the All-Russian competition will receive the support of related ministries and offices and that, starting next year, such teams will compete alongside others. Today we change the Safe Wheel history. Based on the Junior Campus team results, we will draw up a list of recommendations for the competition organizers on guidelines and technical details of their participation”.

Alexander Revskiy, Junior Campus project head manager: “Naturally, the competition is challenging for the kids – they are a little bit anxious, have no previous experience, and it shows. Nevertheless, they try really hard and by the third day of competition they are not last. We think that it is a success – you need to consider the fact that communication with hearing-impaired children is completely different, and many generally simple notions sometime require more time to be explained in sign language. But those are just technical problems that have no influence on the main thing – the fact that kids have a good time and enjoy participating in such an event alongside other children. We want to show that these kids are not different, they just require a little bit more time and attention”.

The competition will go on for four days, during which young traffic inspectors will demonstrate their knowledge on road safety rules, skills in figure biking and first aid skills, as well as perform a promotional piece on road safety on stage. Overall, the Safe Wheel program includes six contests on different areas of road safety.

Winners of the Safe Wheel 2015 will be determined on June 17 during a grand closing ceremony. The first place team will receive the right to represent the Russian Federation at the European Traffic Education Contest in Austria.

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