Give a Vietnamese child a helmet; save a life

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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