Bendigo Community Health Services is working to ensure newly arrived people from refugee backgrounds are safe on the roads, both behind the wheel, and on foot.
This year, BCHS will deliver its Road Safety for New Arrivals Program to 60 new Bendigo residents.
The sessions are specially tailored to Karen people who have previously lived in refugee camps on the Thai-Burma border; places with no formal road system.
Refugee Project Facilitator Nido Taveesupmai said often, these newcomers have never driven a car before coming to Australia.
“Life in refugee camps typically involves no formal road rules, signage or pedestrian systems,” Nido says.
“New arrivals often lack knowledge of road signs, safe driving behaviour and lawful road use.”
The BCHS program is based on Department of Transport and Planning materials, adapted for delivery in the Karen language.
The sessions cover:
- Key risk factors for road users
- Getting around safely as a driver and pedestrian
- Walking, cycling and using public transport, and
- Enforcement of road rules.
Nido says providing road safety information in first language strengthens the participants’ understanding of road rules, improves navigation of traffic, and supports lawful road use.
“Sessions are delivered by bicultural staff with refugee lived experience, which creates a culturally safe and more effective way for people to learn,” he says.
The program has been a key part of BCHS’ education to new arrivals for the past seven years.
Nido says this long history has built a strong reputation and deep reach within newly arrived communities.
“Participants find the sessions useful, and they want all new arrivals to attend,” he says.
Eligible participants who do are rewarded with two free driving lessons with local Karen driving schools.
The Road Safety for New Arrivals program is funded by the Victorian Government’s Department of Transport and Planning.
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