Aljaz Osetic

Slovenia

In continental Europe, 95% of firefighters are volunteers, not professionals, with stations recruiting kids from primary school and training them to help out in the community. I have been a part of the firefighting squad for many years. A persistent issue that has not been solved yet is volunteers rushing to respond to a situation with their own cars - which are unmarked. When seconds matter, my colleagues are putting themselves in great danger every time they rush to the scene in their civilian vehicles with no way of letting others on the road know to move. My team has spent the last 1 year creating a solution to this - a sign for cars of volunteer firefighters that they can use whenever they are responding to an incident. We have partnered with most major firefighting federations to sell this to over 130,000 volunteers and are launching a media campaign to bring awareness to other drivers. Our tests prove that we not only make the roads safer for everyone involved but also reduce response time for 2-3 minutes. This is an enormous impact in lives saved (in Eastern Europe volunteer firefighters are the first respondents for fire-related incidents, but also for medical emergencies, traffic accidents and natural disasters). We estimate one sign (sold for $35) saves 5 lives over the course of its use. There are approximately one million volunteer firefighters in Europe alone that could benefit from it.

If you want the things that the majority don't, you have to be willing to do the things that the majority won't.