How women can and should influence men against drunk driving

By Charity Kiyemba

 This month, the world over, we celebrate the contribution of women in our society. Women have been the critical backbone in any home since life begun - even before the woman became a force to reckon with in the corporate world, or became a political powerhouse, conquered engineering, software development and championed modern medicine inventions. Women continue to influence lives through nurturing and in shaping behaviour.

Uganda Breweries has, for the past four years, run The Red Card Campaign, which promotes responsible consumption of Alcohol with emphasis on Zero tolerance to Drunk Driving. Whereas there is a very high awareness of the message, there is not as much by way of behaviour change from the consumers, a large percentage of who are male. So - where are the women in these men's lives?"

Statistically, because men are more likely to take risks, most drunk driving accidents/ incidents involve men. As a result many women are in one way or another affected by drunk driving, either as passengers (in case of an accident) or as widows left behind. They are often the care givers- nursing patients whose injuries have been caused by drunk driving accidents and in some mild cases, have had to bail their man out of jail when the arm of the law has intervened.

According to the 2014 Traffic Report, there are about 310 drunk driving accidents per year in Uganda, which may be translated to almost an accident a day. There are definitely more accidents that happen due to drunk driving the country over than what has been documented. Behind these statistics, there are actual victims - people who have lost their lives or a loved one or whose lives drastically changed because are maimed and have spent a lot of money dealing with these consequences.

The power of women to persuade their loved ones is critical. We are asking the woman to put her foot down and raise her voice against drunk driving. We, women need to make it our responsibility to ensure that our husbands, spouses, boyfriends, friends, brothers, sons do not drink drive! If your man is drink driving, red card him! Red card him before he goes out with his friends to their favorite hangouts so that he comes home to you safe and sound!

Let us strive to reduce drunk driving accidents to zero. We call upon all wives, girlfriends, partners, sisters, nieces, cousins, mothers, grandmothers, fiancés, and work mates to join us in making this a reality. It is said that behind every successful man is a woman. Let's change this to read that behind every safe man is a woman that cared enough.  

The writer is the corporate relations and legal director of Uganda Breweries Limited