Give a Vietnamese child a helmet; save a life

The Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam helps students properly wear their helmets

As the new school year commenced in Vietnam, millions of children returned to school and many returned to the dangerous commutes they encounter every day on their way to school. Through our various helmet programs implemented in Vietnam, we have donated well over 4000 helmets within the past few months across Vietnam for students at primary schools located in busy districts and areas with precarious road safety situations.

We thank you for your continued support of our work and hope you enjoy reading about the work we've done this school year. Read on for exciting news developments.

AIP Foundation and Swedish Embassy observe Traffic Safety Day at two primary schools

09-11-2018 - Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

AIP Foundation and the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam joined many corporate partners to distribute nearly 2,000 high-quality helmets to students at two primary schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The Swedish Embassy gave nearly 1000 helmets to Ba Dinh Primary School in Hanoi and nearly 1000 helmets to Luong The Vinh Primary School in Ho Chi Minh City. At the events, the organizers called for stronger public awareness and urged adults to put helmets on children whenever they travel on motorcycles. Additionally, there was a flash mob dance that encouraged students to always wear their helmets as well as games that tested their helmet safety knowledge. The ceremony took place in support of AIP Foundation’s Helmet for Kids program, which provides thousands of high-quality helmets to students across Vietnam as well as road safety education to them and their teachers and parents every year.

Approximately 22,000 people lose their lives and 453,000 suffer injuries due to road crashes each year in Vietnam. Road crashes is the number one cause of death for young people aged 15 to 29 and the number two cause of death for children aged 5 to 14 in Vietnam. With over 80 percent of the population under the age of 50, the effects of road crash deaths on young people result in losses to both the family and the larger community.

Please read the press release here

Please review photos from the Hanoi event here

Please review photos from the Ho Chi Minh City event here

Safety Delivered volunteers promote child helmet use in Hanoi

17-10-2018 - Hanoi

Students adjusting their helmets in accordance to the 3 rules of wearing a helmet correctly

AIP Foundation held a helmet handover ceremony at Thanh Tri Primary School, Hanoi sponsored by The UPS Foundation as part of its Safety Delivered program. UPS employees in Vietnam kicked off the company’s annual Global Volunteer Month (GVM) with road safety demonstrations at Thanh Tri Primary School in Hanoi. The event took place at the start of the 2018-19 school year and aimed to raise safety awareness among students, with a special focus on helmet use. UPS volunteers and youth ambassadors for road safety (YARS) from Hanoi University and Cong Nghiep University helped the students wear their helmets correctly in accordance to AIP Foundation’s three steps. The event concluded with a donation from The UPS Foundation of 1,400 quality motorcycle helmets to the students.

AIP Foundation coordinated the event with The UPS Foundation, UPS Vietnam, the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), the Ministry of Education and Training, the Department of Education and Training, Hanoi Traffic Safety Department and Hanoi traffic police. Important representatives from each organization attending including: the Deputy Chief of Secretariat from NTSC, the Deputy CEO from AIP Foundation, representatives from Hanoi TSC, as well as members of the Hanoi Traffic Police, Hoang Mai Women Association, Thanh Tri Ward’s People Committee, and UPS Vietnam.

To learn more about the event:

Please read the press release here

Please see more pictures here

Helmets for Kids celebrates seven years of implementation, holds kick-off ceremony in Thai Nguyen province

24-09-2018 - Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam

Primary school children in Thai Nguyen learn the three steps to wearing a helmet for the first time

To celebrate seven years of strong partnership between AIP Foundation and Johnson & Johnson, and in response to the call for “Traffic Safety for Children” from National Traffic Safety Committee this year, Helmets for Kids will extend towards Thai Nguyen, a mountainous area located in the north of Vietnam. AIP Foundation collaborated with Thai Nguyen Traffic Safety Committee (TSC) to organize a kick-off event at Hoa Thuong 1 Primary School. After six successful program years, Johnson & Johnson will continue to support Helmets for Kids in Gia Lai, Yen Bai and Quang Nam, and will begin work in Thai Nguyen for the first time in 2018. The total number of donated helmets is 5,075 towards 31 schools across Vietnam.

Nearly 670 people attended the ceremony. The ceremony welcomed some distinguished guests: Mrs. Trinh Thu Ha, Deputy Chief of Secretariat from the National Traffic Safety Committee, representative from the Ministry of Education and Training Mr. Duong Van Ba, Mr. Nguyen Quang Trung from J&J Vietnam and other representatives from local authorities and government.

“We are happy to see the long-term commitment and impact from Johnson & Johnson’s Helmets for Kids program and local partners. The program embraces such a meaningful message, through which we hope to raise awareness of helmet use and basic road safety knowledge in primary schools. By expanding the program towards Thai Nguyen this year, along with various teacher training workshops, “Helmets for Kids” program expresses its concern not only about helmet standard quality but also Vietnam’s next generation. Active participation from provincial departments and great support from Johnson & Johnson are two keys factors to program success. ” said Mrs. Trinh Thu Ha, Deputy Chief of Secretariat for National Traffic Safety Committee.

Please see more photos from the event here

Please read the full press release here

A stakeholder at the announcement ceremony assists a first grade student with putting on her new helmet.

As the summer enters its peak, AIP Foundation has continued to diversify its approaches to public education and awareness programs throughout Vietnam in addition to its programs. Read below to learn about some of our major updates from the past few months:

Nearly 2 million first- graders across Vietnam to receive quality helmets
5 July, 2018

The National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) and Honda Vietnam Company Ltd (Honda Vietnam) have announced that approximately 1.95 million quality helmets will be donated to all first-graders in Vietnam at the beginning of the upcoming 2018 school year. Protec, our social enterprise helmet factory, will produce approximately 700,000 of the helmets.

This exciting announcement represents the culmination of years of advocacy and awareness-raising by road safety stakeholders in Vietnam. At the beginning of 2015, we launched the National Child Helmet Action Plan (NCHAP) in Vietnam, bringing together major partners to discuss ways to sustain and improve child helmet use. As part of NCHAP, and in partnership with The UPS Foundation, we employed large-scale public awareness campaigns that helped increase child helmet use rates in Hanoi, Danang, and Ho Chi Minh.

The success of NCHAP has prompted the government to take action to promote child helmet use within the country. And on 19 January 2018, the Prime Minister issued Directive 04/CT-TTg, with the goal of raising child helmet use rates in Vietnam to 80% by 2020. The current helmet distribution plan sponsored aims to support this Directive as well as the earlier foundational work carried out by NCHAP.

View more photos from the announcement launch ceremony here.

Popular emoji icon reveals darker side in distracted driving campaign targeted at Vietnamese youth 
11 June, 2018- Ho Chi Minh City

A billboard featuring the campaign’s message installed at a university in Ho Chi Minh City to act as a constant reminder for students on their commute to and from school.

The darker side of the popular emoji icon was revealed to audiences across Vietnam in a newly launched distracted driving campaign targeted at 15 to 29-year-olds. The campaign’s slogan is “Leave your phone alone or you could be next!” and features a sinister, evil emoji character as its key visual. The two associated TV commercials will be broadcast on national and provincial television channels; shown on televisions at target universities and at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City; incorporated into the communications plans for 63 provincial traffic safety committees; and disseminated through digital channels via an online media campaign. Thirty billboards featuring the campaign’s message will also be installed at 10 target universities as a constant reminder for students on their commute to and from school. AIP Foundation is leading the initiative as part of The UPS Foundation-supported Safety Delivered program and working in close consultation with the National Road Safety Committee, Ministry of Education, and target universities.

The campaign takes the familiar icon of a cute and innocent emoji and turns it into a lethal killer on the road by featuring a malicious emoji that preys on distracted motorcyclists. Through this innovative reimagining of common road situations into horror movie scenarios, the campaign addresses the consequences of unsafe behaviors such as calling, text messaging, and using the Internet. These behaviors cause a driver to become distracted, slow his or her reaction time, and affect his or her ability to make safe driving decisions.

According to baseline surveys of 927 male and female students from seven universities in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, 79% of students reported having used a mobile phone at least once while driving in the past six months. This represents a troubling reality, considering the World Health Organization found that a driver talking on a mobile phone is four times more likely to be involved in a road crash than one who is not. 

Read the full press release here.

View more photos from the launch here.

Helmets for Families sees increase in qulity helmet use by students, parents 
22 June, 2018- Ho Chi Minh City

An Abbott volunteer adjusts the helmet for a student from Tan Thanh Dong Primary School, which participates in our Helmets for Families program.

Thanks to our Helmets for Families program implementation this year, both the average helmet-use rates among students and the percentage of parents and students wearing quality helmets have increased dramatically. Average helmet-use rates among students increased from 62% to 77% at our four schools in the Hoc Mon district of Ho Chi Minh City and from 18% to 90% at the two new target schools in Cu Chi district that were added to the program this school year. Observations were conducted using our rigorous helmet observation methodology developed in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that utilizes strategic filming of traffic flows. These positive results can be attributed to road safety education conducted both inside and outside of the classroom, helmet distribution, and school policy enforcement.

For measurements on the quality of helmets being worn by students and parents, it was found that of all helmets checked, the percentage of parents’ helmets that meet national safety standards increased from 25% to 57% and the percentage of students’ helmets that meet national standards increased from 35% to 98%. These data points were calculated through random interviews of 181 parents at the gates of Tan Phu Trung and Tan Thanh Dong schools in January 2018 (baseline) and 207 parents in March 2018 (post implementation). Program intervention activities included parent trainings and helmet exchanges to replace substandard helmets with quality, new ones.

Helmets for Families, which recently celebrated its fifth year of implementation, is supported by the global healthcare company Abbott and implemented by AIP Foundation, the National Traffic Safety Committee, Ministry of Education and Training, Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Committee, and the Department of Education and Training. 

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