peterThembekile Ntuliki, Sunday News Reporter
CARING about the sanctity of human life has seen a 68-year-old woman from Bulawayo waking up as early as 5am just to assist learners to cross the busy Old Esigodini Road.
For the past two years, Mrs Rose Blair from Woodlands, has been voluntarily assisting different children who cross the road enroute to Milton and Townsend high Schools.
“I get there around 7am and help people to cross till 8am. At times I would be supervising 60 pupils crossing the road. Some elderly people struggle to cross the road as they would be using walking sticks, a situation that has forced many to cross roads while looking downwards instead of looking at the dangerous sides,” she said.
The road, which is regarded as one of the busiest in the city, is crossed by school pupils from Western and Northern Suburbs. Countless school pupils in the city have been run over by cars while crossing some roads to their respective schools.
Mrs Blair believes that people with disabilities and young school children should be assisted to cross the busiest roads as some drivers are said to be speeding everywhere. She is appealing to the local authority to construct speed humps to slow down cars, pedestrian robots, even pedestrian bridges if possible.
“The road is very busy and some of the drivers speed in that area and I asked people around what they would like to be done in that area and some of the suggestions included rumble humps, pedestrian robots, having one of those big orange flashing lights on the signs because people ignore the zebra crossing or have it painted again,” said Mrs Blair.
Mrs Blair, a selfless helper, says she does not have a child learning at any of these schools but she just found passion in helping others.
“People have been good enough to give me a reflector, big stop sign which now makes it easy for me to do my work because at first I would just stand in the middle of the road and wave my hands, as dangerous as it is, I am risking my life but I feel happy when I help protect more lives.
“I started doing this in 2019 because I saw many learners facing challenges while crossing the road. The drivers usually speed and children are left to cross the road on their own and as someone who has a very strong passion for children, elderly people and animals, I cannot tolerate abuse of any of them, hence I saw the need for me to do something to try and help where I can,” said Mrs Blair.
She chose that time because she is someone who wakes up in the morning to go for walks and this became her new exercise in the morning.
“I am doing this out of my will. I do not expect anything in return. I feel happy that I am able to do something for the community and also I do other voluntary works at the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), help elderly people with shopping or anything I can do for them,” said Mrs Blair.
However, she has challenges with arrogant drivers who do not stop at the zebra crossing no matter what, which sometimes contributes to some of the accidents that happen along that area.
“I had a challenge at the beginning of the year when I had just helped people to cross the road, two cars bumped into each other and the other lady blamed me for not stopping cars but that is not my job. I just volunteer to help people cross roads during that hour when I am there. Some people ignore road signs which show zebra crossings.”
Bongani Ndlovu