By Molly Ellison | Communications & Development Coordinator
Recently, our road safety programs in Vietnam have worked with students and families from diverse backgrounds - ranging from a community in an agricultural zone of Ho Chi Minh City to one neighboring a major shipping port. Read on to learn more about these innovative initiatives and check out our newly published 2016 Annual Report for more on our life-saving work.
Road safety program provides low-income and agricultural families with 5,600 helmets
5 January, 2017 - Hoc Mon District, Ho Chi Minh City
Helmets for Families, supported by Abbott, is expanding its road safety education to four new schools in the Hoc Mon District of Ho Chi Minh City, a suburban and agricultural zone where up to 90% of the participating students’ parents are manual laborers. This year, Helmets for Families will continue its work toward increasing road safety literacy and safe behaviors amongst Vietnamese families by distributing more than 4,700 high quality helmets to students and teachers, and exchanging nearly 900 subsidized helmets to parents in Hoc Mon District and at two schools in Hanoi.
The program hosted its 2016-2017 school year kick-off event at Nhi Xuan Primary School in the Hoc Mon District. Nearly 1,000 students, teachers, and parents attended the ceremony. They were joined by representatives from Abbott, as well as officials from the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Committee, Department of Education and Training, Traffic Police, and local authorities.
A pre-implementation survey revealed that 76.3% of the students at program schools in Hoc Mon District commute to and from school by riding on their parents’ motorcycles. The average student helmet-wearing rate at these schools is about 30%, well below the Ho Chi Minh City average of 48%. Only 1.3% of parents surveyed had the correct knowledge of what makes a high quality helmet.
View more photos from the kick-off event here.
Read the full press release here.
Road safety education program launches in industrial shipping port community
15 December, 2016 - Bia Rai-Vung Tau Province
APM Terminals together with AIP Foundation, is rolling out a new training program in Vietnam to help make the port community of Cai Mep in southern Vietnam safe. More than 45 truck drivers and other CMIT employees, along with executives from the APM Terminals’ operated Cai Mep International Terminal (CMIT), joined 500 students, teachers, and parents at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, which neighbors the port, to address road safety issues in their community. The truck drivers work for CMIT, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based port operator APM Terminals. The event is the inaugural activity for Lifting Safety, a proactive road safety program developed by AIP Foundation and APM Terminals. So far, it has provided nearly 1,000 helmets and road safety education classes to children at Tran Quoc Toan and Toc Tien primary schools.
A study commissioned by APM Terminals and conducted by AIP Foundation in October 2016 found that even though most students in the region commuted to school by motorcycle, only 35% of students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School and 19% of students at Toc Tien Primary School wore helmets, despite road dangers such as mixed vehicle use roads and lack of separate motorcycle lanes.
The Lifting Safety program aims to identify and mitigate road safety risks in the community near the port through a combination of targeted education, awareness, and community engagement programs. Both the national- and provincial-level traffic safety committees have worked closely with APM Terminals and AIP Foundation in developing and implementing the program. Over the next year, Lifting Safety will implement truck driver trainings, a mass media awareness campaign, and community-based activities in and around the CMIT port in Vietnam.
View more photos from the event here.
Read the full press release here.
Mid-term review workshops reveal increased community commitment to helmet use
8-12 December, 2016 - Quang Nam and Gia Lai provinces
During a mid-term review workshop at Johnson & Johnson’s Helmets for Kids program schools in Quang Nam and Gia Lai provinces, community members reflected on their experiences thus far and some re-committed to raising student helmet wearing rates to 95%. AIP Foundation staff spoke with government officials, hosted community meetings, met with students who had been in road crashes, visited program schools, and held focus group discussions. One school principal in Quang Nam Province noted that though road safety awareness among students was strong, parents participate in risky driving behaviors.
“The project has been very influential... They all see the helmet as a close friend, a partner that goes to school with them every day,” Pham Hieu Trinh, Chief Secretariat of the Gia Lai Traffic Safety Committee, said.
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