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Global Newsletter May 2016 |
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Dear Friends and Supporters, The month of May has seen a flurry of activity at AIP Foundation’s offices, including the announcement of a strengthened commitment between The UPS Foundation and AIP Foundation in the form of a new project, Safety Delivered. Last week in Hanoi, AIP Foundation President Greig Craft and UPS Vietnam Managing Director Jeff McLean signed a memorandum of understanding to commemorate this partnership during an event aligned with U.S. President Obama’s historic first visit to Vietnam. This represents the latest development in a partnership that can trace its roots back to 2011. Thailand has also seen many events this month, including the very first “Embassy Friends of Road Safety” meeting in Bangkok. Six ambassadors and representatives from the UNHCR and the WHO were on hand to inaugurate a collective effort to address the high rates of death and injury on the country’s roads. There is much more to discover about our programming and achievements this month in our newsletter, so please read on. Kind regards, Mirjam Sidik
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Table of Contents |
Global |
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Vietnam |
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Cambodia |
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Thailand |
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China |
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Employment Opportunities
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Global |
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Michael Bloomberg praises work done to improve helmet use in Vietnam
While speaking to The New York Times about the approach he takes with his extensive philanthropic involvements, former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg highlighted the work that has been done to address low rates of helmet use in Vietnam, referring to the efforts as “among the foundation’s most successful endeavors in [the area of road safety]”. He spoke specifically about the advocacy efforts that led to the passage of the mandatory helmet law in 2007 as being emblematic of the type of work that philanthropists should be focusing on. Read the full article here. |
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Opinion piece: Mom issues an unforgettable warning about what can happen if you don't make your kids wear their helmet
Source: POPSUGAR.com, 27 April, 2016. Nine times out of 10, you make sure your kids wear their helmets when they go out on a bike ride. But that one time you don't? The one time they fall? That's when it matters most. Just ask Tiffany Rivera, whose 10-year-old son Jaden rode his bike without a helmet one day last month. "While riding his bike, he fell off, scraping up his elbow and knee," said the Florida-based mom. Like most parents would do, she asked Jaden if anything else hurt. His only complaints were his elbow and knee. "He showed no signs of trauma and continued about his day." Two days later, Jaden woke up with a headache. He was lethargic and had no appetite. That's when Rivera noticed something: "You could see swelling around his right temple." She decided to take him to the hospital, and when she got Jaden into the car, he started vomiting. By the time they arrived at the ER, things were far worse. Read the full article here. |
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Related news: It’s no accident: advocates want to speak of car ‘crashes’ instead
Source: The New York Times, 22 May, 2016. Roadway fatalities are soaring at a rate not seen in 50 years, resulting from crashes, collisions and other incidents caused by drivers. Just don’t call them accidents anymore. That is the position of a growing number of safety advocates, including grass-roots groups, federal officials and state and local leaders across the country. They are campaigning to change a 100-year-old mentality that they say trivializes the single most common cause of traffic incidents: human error. “When you use the word ‘accident,’ it’s like, ‘God made it happen,’ ” Mark Rosekind, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said at a driver safety conference this month at the Harvard School of Public Health. “In our society,” he added, “language can be everything.” Almost all crashes stem from driver behavior like drinking, distracted driving and other risky activity. About 6% are caused by vehicle malfunctions, weather and other factors. Read the full article here. |
Vietnam |
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Parents across Vietnam share hundreds of photo messages to show their commitment to road safety
Throughout the months of April and May, AIP Foundation, in partnership with The UPS Foundation and in collaboration with the National Traffic Safety Committee, hosted a nationwide social media campaign, with the goal of using photography to promote social change by giving parents a forum to share their experiences on the road and their support for child helmet use. The campaign required parents to submit photos showing their children wearing high-quality helmets and a caption about road safety or helmet use. Prizes were awarded every week of the campaign to those photos that delivered the most powerful testaments of parent engagement in their children’s well-being on the roads. By the end of the campaign, over 400 photos had been submitted and hundreds of families had taken part in the effort. To see the photos from the campaign, visit the Facebook page here. For more information on this campaign, read the press release here. |
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Evaluation shows far-reaching effectiveness of AIP Foundation campaign
A crucial part of AIP Foundation’s work lies in not only carrying out quality programming but also in ensuring that our outreach efforts are comprehensive, accurate, and high-impact so as many people as possible gain access to the information they need to stay safe on the roads. In pursuit of this goal, AIP Foundation carried out an effectiveness evaluation in the cities of Danang, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City to measure the results of the communications aspect of one of its projects, among those funded by The UPS Foundation, which reached nearly eight million people throughout Vietnam. The results from the cross-sectional survey of 450 parents from 45 different schools in the three target cities indicated that, about two-thirds had correct knowledge of the child helmet law, and, of those parents who had seen or heard the campaign message, almost two-thirds had seen a billboard (such as the one shown above) from the communications campaign. In addition, of those surveyed, 92% believed that children need to wear helmets, while 97% stated that the reason they had their children wear helmets was because they worry about potential head injuries. With results like these, it is clear that AIP Foundation’s efforts are reaching broad audiences and also helping develop high rates of positive attitudes among parents when it comes to helmet safety. |
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AIP Foundation and The UPS Foundation expand strategic partnership against backdrop of historic Obama visit
AIP Foundation and The UPS Foundation have signed a memorandum of understanding to announce their cooperation on a new project, Safety Delivered. The signing ceremony took place during an American Chamber of Commerce business event attended by senior American diplomats on the occasion of U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic first visit to Vietnam. Greig Craft, AIP Foundation President, and Jeff McLean, Managing Director of UPS Vietnam and South Asia District Agent Operations, renewed their commitment to reducing road crash fatality and injury in Asia. This project continues a partnership with The UPS Foundation started in 2011 that has spanned projects such as AIP Foundation’s signature, school-based Helmets for Kids project in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand; the National Child Helmet Action Plan in Vietnam; and the Head Safe. Helmet On. project, which aimed at advocating for the passage of the new Road Traffic law in Cambodia and for increased passenger helmet use, especially among children. To view photos of the event, click here. For more details of the event, read the press release here. |
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Related news: Vietnam's lethal traffic
Source: The Diplomat, 20 May, 2016. Vietnamese traffic: locals know it; everyone complains about it. Tourists photograph it and share their experiences back home. But for pedestrians, crossing the streets can be a daunting affair. Vietnam has made great strides economically. But amid the soaring economy and rise in tourism, roads and traffic policing have not kept pace with the increasing number of vehicles on the road. The high traffic congestion in Vietnam is a hazardous enterprise that results from an excessive number of motorbikes and limited infrastructure capacity. In most areas, bike riders and motorcyclists ride on sidewalks meant for pedestrians. It is not an uncommon sight to see two to four people on a single motorbike. Read the full article here. |
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Related news: Vietnam's comprehensive helmet law
Source: Center for Global Development, 2015. The Vietnamese government had begun to take on motorcycle safety as early as the mid-1990s. However, the mandatory helmet use law encountered major implementation and enforcement barriers, such as imposing only a minor fine for noncompliance. And the toll of motorcycle-related deaths continued to grow, reaching an all-time high in 2002. Then, new leadership in the government's National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) and other factors created a window for action. Bui Huynh Long, the incoming director of the NTSC, had come from the Ministry of Transport, where he had a track record of supporting helmet legislation. Long's arrival at the NTSC coincided with helmet initiatives from several international partners. Among them was the Hanoi-based AIP Foundation, founded by Greig Craft. Craft suspected that a law would only change behavior if people had helmets they were willing to wear. This led AIP Foundation to open a factory in 2002 in Hanoi, which produced roughly half a million high-quality helmets for use in tropical settings in its first dozen years of operation. Read the full article here. |
Cambodia |
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Interactive road safety web portal now on-line to engage Cambodian motorists
AIP Foundation, in partnership with The UPS Foundation, is pleased to announce the launch of www.saferoads.org.kh. This educational web portal will be focused on ensuring that the Cambodian public, especially the younger generation, has access to accurate, detailed, and engaging information on road safety issues. The broader aim of the launch is to encourage an increase in helmet use among the many motorcycle passengers, including children, in the country. The website will feature a wide range of different types of content, from quizzes and games to more conventional news items, case stories, and articles. Click here to access the website. For more information, visit the press release on this topic here. |
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Media tour assesses firsthand the impact of Cambodian Road Traffic Law
A group of thirty media representatives recently joined AIP Foundation and members of the traffic police to survey the current state of Cambodia’s roads, four months after the Road Traffic Law instituting a mandatory helmet policy for motorcycle passengers went into effect. The tour is part of the Head Safe. Helmet On. program and funded by The UPS Foundation and by USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures. In addition to acknowledging the successes and analyzing the challenges still facing the country in this area, the broader aim of this event is to encourage and engage media outlets to provide effective, comprehensive coverage on helmet use stories and enable them to play a vital role in promoting public awareness of the importance of these issues. For more information on this event, read the press release here. |
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Action Plan for promoting helmets in Cambodian schools to be focus of review workshop
AIP Foundation, in collaboration with FIA Foundation and with support from the Ministry of Education of Cambodia, held a workshop in order to review and preliminarily approve a draft Action Plan to promote helmet use among students and educators in Cambodia. The plan would propose helmets be made part of school uniforms in the country as well as include provisions aimed at developing teachers’ capacity to convey material on road and helmet safety. This workshop comes as part of the "Agents for Change" project, also supported by FIA Foundation, which enables policymakers and journalists across three target provinces in Cambodia to encourage compliance with driver and passenger helmet laws among the public. For more information on this event, read the press release here. |
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Awards ceremony held to commend schools for commitment to road safety
AIP Foundation, in collaboration with The UPS Foundation, held an awards ceremony to highlight the activities of three exemplary schools from Phnom Penh, Kandal, and Kampong Speu provinces. These three schools were distinguished for their active participation in promoting safe road behaviors with a particular focus on helmet use among their students and teachers and within their broader communities. For more information on this event, read the press release here. |
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Related video: Nightcrawlers of Phnom Penh
Blending grim interviews with graphic crash-site footage, this short video documents the lives of night journalists in Cambodia's capital as they work to get the "best" shots of the toll that the road safety crisis is taking on the country's citizens. In an effort to sell more newspapers, these young men risk the dangerous roads of Phnom Penh after dark in hopes of shedding light on this situation while also providing for themselves and their families within a bleak economic landscape. Watch the video here. |
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Related news: Helmet use statistics promising, NGO finds
Source: The Phnom Penh Post, 2 May, 2016. Despite the uneven enforcement of the new Traffic Law’s helmet requirements, rates of helmet use among motorcycle drivers and passengers has risen substantially, according to statistics released by AIP Foundation, although helmet use at night remains significantly lower. Passenger helmet use rose from a baseline below 15% in August 2015 to nearly 30% by mid-January in both the dozen or so communes in Kandal, Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh where AIP Foundation implemented road safety education programs and the six communes measured as a control group. “Rates were going up in December already in anticipation of the law coming into force,” said Katherine Klaric, Compliance and Development Coordinator at AIP Foundation, adding “rates are lower than they could have been because enforcement was not stringent at the time of data collection, but they are going up”. Read the full article here. |
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Related news: Helmet safety considered for national curriculum
Source: Khmer Times, 18 May, 2016. An effort to educate Cambodia’s youth about wearing helmets on the Kingdom’s roads was discussed at a round table meeting yesterday between representatives of the Ministry of Education, the traffic police, and the NGO AIP Foundation. Since January, AIP Foundation has been travelling around the provinces educating citizens on the Road Traffic Law and the importance of helmet safety, but now aims to take this education to the classrooms as part of the national curriculum in the hope that helmet usage will reach 100% by the end of 2018. Kim Sethany, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, welcomed the plan for helmet safety to be added to the national curriculum. Read the full article here. |
Thailand |
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100% helmet compliance measured in schools in Udon Thani
AIP Foundation Thailand is pleased to announce the successful Helmets for Kids results measured in the northern province of Udon Thani. The project, which was enabled by Thai DENSO Group and the Road Safety Fund, provided road safety education and 628 helmets to six schools during the 2015-2016 school year. Among the schools that had previously received helmets through this program, helmet-wearing rates rose by more than 30% to 85%, while the new program schools saw a precipitous climb from 0% of their students wearing helmets on the roads to 89%. An impressive 50% of the schools reached full compliance of 100% of their students wearing helmets after the project. The rates are all the more significant given the location of the selected schools in dangerous traffic environments along a busy highway lacking traffic lights or walkways. For more information on this Helmets for Kids project, read the press release here, or to view photos of the kick-off ceremony, see here. |
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AIP Foundation hosts forum to deepen dialogue on urban speed control
To usher in the second year of the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS)'s Legal Development Program, AIP Foundation, with the support from BIGRS and the World Health Organization, has hosted an academic forum entitled “Urban speed control: a way forward to reduce road fatalities”. The forum was attended by over 30 participants, including three leading road safety academics and representatives from the public and private sectors and from civil society. The forum endeavored both to present the latest studies on the relationship between speed and road crashes and to provide a space for relevant stakeholders to exchange their views on how to effectively enforce urban speed control to improve safety and reduce traffic fatalities in Thailand. |
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Ambassadors gather to show support for ending road crash epidemic
The first “Embassy Friends of Road Safety” meeting was held this month at the British Embassy in Bangkok to inaugurate a collective effort on the part of the diplomatic community in Thailand to address the high rates of death and injury on the country’s roads. Six ambassadors attended, representing Canada, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition, the British Chargé d'Affaires and representatives from the Australian, Brazilian, and American embassies were also on hand along with country representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the World Health Organization, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Thailand, and AIP Foundation. The participants united in shared concern over the state of roads in Thailand and discussed how to work together towards reducing the number of road crash deaths and injuries. |
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“Master Trainers” come together to learn how to educate their school communities on road safety
As a crucial component in fostering sustainable road safety education through the Street Wise project, a joint effort between AIP Foundation and Chevron Thailand, 17 teachers from 6 schools in Songkhla Province attended a three-day workshop to become “Master Trainers” of the road safety curriculum developed for the community by AIP Foundation. These master trainers will move on from the program to train 75 teachers from Wicheinchom School and increase their confidence and fluency in teaching pedestrian, bicycle, bus, and motorcycle safety skills. |
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Parents join children in educating themselves on important road safety issues
The Street Wise initiative between AIP Foundation and Chevron Thailand centers on teaching children the skills they need to be safe even when faced with chaotic traffic environments. To fully change their behavior, these messages should come on a regular basis from various sources, including their parents. As such, Street Wise has reached out to parents of students involved in the project through a workshop aimed at highlighting the central road safety messages their children are learning, introducing the program’s “Master Trainer” teachers, and giving useful tips on how parents can support their children in staying safe on the roads, especially when traveling to and from school. In addition, the parents were informed at the workshop of the upcoming event at Wicheinchom School to kick off the second year of the project in Songkhla Province. |
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Event draws 2,000 supporters in advocating helmets become part of school uniforms
AIP Foundation, in collaboration with The UPS Foundation and Save the Children and with support from Vespiario Thailand Ltd., Tesco Lotus BIG Trees Project, and the Bangkok Bicycle Campaign, held an event, “A helmet for life”, to raise awareness of The 7% Project, which aims to address the consistently low rates of helmet use among children. The event also introduced the policy goal of making motorcycle helmets a necessary part of official school uniforms. The occasion marked a time to highlight successes of The 7% Project while urging the community to support the goal of improved safety on Thailand’s roads with the help of influential figures from the country’s art, entertainment, and internet spheres. Among these successes was an increase in helmet use by nearly 20% among pilot schools in the past year. Mr. Supat Champathong, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, attended the event and was quoted as saying "Each year, countless children die in road crashes, but the number and severity of accidents could be greatly reduced through increased helmet use. The Ministry of Education supports AIP Foundation’s campaign and will take The 7% project’s materials as templates for improving both the teaching and learning standards for road safety in Thailand." For more information on this event, read the press release here. |
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School community gathers to celebrate second year of
Street Wise project
Over 2,000 students, parents, and teachers from Wicheinchom School in the Muang District of Songkhla Province gathered today along with invited stakeholders to inaugurate the second year of the Street Wise pedestrian safety project, a collaboration between AIP Foundation and Chevron Thailand. Along with numerous road-safety-related activities, 1,000 helmets were donated to children at the school during this event. Street Wise began in 2014 in Singhanakorn District of Songkhla Province, and this year it has transitioned into neighboring Muang District. “The Street Wise project has seen commendable success in its first year – the students in Singhanakorn District, where the project was first launched, started out with virtually zero helmet compliance. Only 3% of students were observed wearing helmets, but this number shot up to 33% after the first year of Street Wise implementation. While this is just the beginning, it shows that the children in this community are on their way to developing the safety habits that will serve them well for the rest of their lives,” said Ms. Ratanawadee Winther, Chairperson of AIP Foundation Thailand. To view photos of the event, click here. For more information on this event, read the press release here. |
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Related news: Heading for Safety
The great news from the Helmets for Kids project in Udon Thani Province (see news item above) recently caught the attention of Catalyst Asia, a content platform owned and managed by the Institute for Societal Leadership at the Singapore Management University that showcases organizations working for the betterment of society in Asia. They published an article featuring the work AIP Foundation has done in schools in Thailand and documenting the surprise the successes had elicited from the local community. For example, one interviewee remembers that, because helmets were nearly never used before the project, “in the beginning, other villagers couldn’t believe their eyes. They would take out their phones to snap a photo of the students [wearing helmets]”. That has completely changed now, and many parents are now getting on board after witnessing their children refusing to get on motorcycles without wearing helmets. To read the full story, see the article here. |
China |
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AIP Foundation presents at the Asia Pacific Road Safety 2016 Conference
Xiaoyan Xu, China Country Manager at AIP Foundation, presented at the Asia Pacific Road Safety 2016 Conference, themed "Halving road deaths and injuries by 2020 – The Challenges for Communities, Companies and Countries." Xiaoyan presented a session called "A child’s right to road safety," reflecting on our current project, Walk Wise, which aims to increase pedestrian safety among children commuting to and from school. Organized by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), the conference addressed challenges specific to the region and possible solutions, which will contribute toward the ambitious target of the Sustainable Development Goals of halving road crash deaths by 2020. |
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Related news: Traffic’s toll: road accidents kill 700 people a day in China
Source: South China Morning Post, 24 May, 2016. More than 700 people are killed in road accidents across China every day, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO estimates that traffic accidents claim about 260,000 deaths on the mainland each year; 60% are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. “The carnage that occurs on the world’s roads every single day is a public health crisis of gargantuan proportions,” said Bernhard Schwartländer, the WHO’s representative in China. Read the full article here. |
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