Give a Vietnamese child a helmet; save a life

On March 17, 2015, AIP Foundation organized a kick-off ceremony in Quang Nam Province to mark another year of Helmets for Kids. This is the first year Quang Nam Province schools are receiving helmet donations and road safety education under the Helmets for Kids program. Five primary schools in Quang Nam Province received 2,987 helmets at the ceremony. Representatives from the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), and local partners attended the ceremony and took part in the symbolic helmet handover.

A total of 9,100 helmets will be distributed to primary students and teachers at 44 schools across Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Dong Nai, and Quang Nam provinces throughout 2015. The remaining helmets will be distributed in September at the start of the 2015-2016 school year to primary schools in these four provinces. The selected schools are located in four of 15 major provinces implementing the National Child Helmet Action Plan. The Action Plan is coordinated by AIP Foundation, NTSC, and other road safety supporters and aims to reach 80% child helmet-wearing rates by 2016.

On April 2, 2015, the C67 traffic police and NTSC launched the National Enforcement Action Plan for child helmet use. The National Enforcement Action Plan will be applied and implemented in provinces across Vietnam and will connect all relevant agencies, including district-, commune-, and village-level enforcement with the ability to enhance police monitoring together. The National Enforcement Action Plan is a part of the larger National Child Helmet Action Plan, which aims to significantly increase child helmet-wearing rates.

Representatives from the C67, NTSC, MoET, traffic police, and supporting partners attended the launch. An “enhanced police enforcement” week scheduled from April 6-10, 2015 is a major component of the plan.

As part of the “enhanced police enforcement” week, police and public security forces will patrol schools for compliance with the child helmet law. From April 6-9, motorcycle drivers whose children are not wearing helmets will be stopped and given a ‘reminder’ and all violation cases will be reported to the schools to take further action. These ‘reminders’ will shift to traffic penalty fines on April 10, 2015. Police will then begin strict enforcement for violators who do not put helmets on child passengers.

This government prioritization of child helmet use would not have been possible without your support. Your contributions have enabled us to implement our Helmets for Kids programs, which involves a component of government engagement. Through the implementation of our school-based programs, we have strengthened our relationships with the government, increased their focus on road safety, and built their capacity to effectively improve Vietnam’s roads. The National Child Helmet Action Plan is a key example, and similar policy changes will lead to more sustainable and widespread interventions that protect Vietnamese children from road traffic casualties.