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Global Newsletter September 2016 |
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Dear Friends and Supporters, This month, we have taken our road safety work around the globe. Our Cambodia Country Director attended conferences in Australia and Finland to discuss the accomplishments the U.S. Agency for International Development - Development Innovation Ventures (USAID-DIV) co-funded Head Safe. Helmet On. project has achieved. I also traveled to Finland to share our experiences advocating for child road safety legislation at Safe Kids Worldwide’s Global Networking Meeting learn from industry peers, and accept two awards for our mass media campaign in Cambodia at the International Safety Media Awards. Our President, Greig Craft, spoke about the Vietnam helmet story at the Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile regional roundtable in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In Washington, D.C., an FIA Foundation-commissioned report, which included a case study on our helmet safety work in Cambodia, was launched at the World Bank’s headquarters. We have been lucky to share our meaningful road safety work with the world this September, and we’re excited to see where the coming months take us. 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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AIP Foundation CEO attends Safe Kids Worldwide annual meeting, discusses experiences advocating for child road safety legislation
AIP Foundation CEO Mirjam Sidik collaborated with child injury prevention peers at Safe Kids Worldwide’s annual Global Network Meeting. At the forum, Sidik shared her organization’s experiences advocating for child road safety legislation in Vietnam during a roundtable discussion. AIP Foundation was also one of three winners of a small grant competition, and will use the funds to support an initiative that will provide road safety education to low-income night school students in Ho Chi Minh City. AIP Foundation, operating as Safe Kids Vietnam, partners with Safe Kids Worldwide and FedEx in Vietnam on its pedestrian safety program, Walk This Way. Since 2009, Walk this Way in Vietnam has reached 224,263 students from 278 schools across the country. |
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AIP Foundation President shares the Vietnam helmet story in Sri Lanka
Greig Craft, AIP Foundation President, discussed the organization's Vietnamese helmet safety initiatives at the Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile – Region II (Asia Pacific) Roundtable in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The conference gathered industry experts representing 17 countries in Asia, as well as Australia and New Zealand. The Colombo-based Automobile Association of Ceylon (AAC), the oldest and largest organization of its kind in the country, organized the event, which focused on the theme of road safety. At the roundtable, Craft presented on the history of helmet use in Vietnam, shared his personal experiences in the country, and discussed the advocacy and education initiatives AIP Foundation has spearheaded over the past 17 years. He also discussed Protec, the social enterprise helmet factory that is affiliated with the nonprofit. |
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FIA Foundation report featuring Cambodia helmet interventions case study launched at the World Bank
New case studies, titled “Investing to Save Lives: An impact investment case for preventing road trauma,” commissioned by the FIA Foundation that feature results from AIP Foundation’s helmet safety project in Cambodia were launched at the World Bank headquarters. The research, co-authored by Social Finance UK and Impact Strategist, reveals that investing in road safety measures leads to significant financial benefits and saves lives. The report examined Head Safe. Helmet On., co-funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development - Development Innovation Ventures (USAID-DIV), and launched by AIP Foundation in 2014 in Cambodia. The project case study explores how development impact bonds that would deliver “payment by results” could be created to possibly attract new sources of funding, including private investors, to road safety efforts. “The catastrophic costs to households of road traffic injuries in countries like Cambodia is too often overlooked, but if we are to achieve the SDGs we must tackle road safety in low and middle income countries head on. We see great potential for social investment to bring greater focus on this important issue from a broader stakeholder group, and open up new funding opportunities for governments,” Mirjam Sidik, CEO of AIP Foundation, said. Other organizations involved in the case studies include the Transport Accident Commission and iRAP. The report was launched at the iRAP Innovation Workshop in Washington, D.C., and was previewed at the Safety 2016 Conference in Tampere, Finland. Click here to read the full case studies. Click here to read more from FIA Foundation about the research. |
Vietnam |
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APM Terminals teams up with AIP Foundation to boost road safety awareness
AIP Foundation and APM Terminals staff teamed up in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for a weeklong meeting to exchange ideas on the current status of road safety, particularly among Vietnamese parents and children. Twenty-six international staff from APM Terminals and affiliate organizations attended. Click here to watch a video featuring APM Terminals employees discussing their impressions of the roads in Vietnam. |
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AIP Foundation staff helps international school students craft road safety programs
Molly Ellison and Peggy Moriarty from AIP Foundation discussed helmet safety with secondary school students at the British International School of Ho Chi Minh City (BIS). The pair addressed the road situation in Vietnam, the importance of wearing a helmet on both bicycles and motorcycles, and what can be done to alleviate the issue. Throughout the academic year, the students will create and implement road safety programs in their communities. BIS has three campuses in Ho Chi Minh City, with two primary and one secondary, and hosts more than 2,000 students representing 51 nationalities. |
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First push-button cross light at a Vietnamese school launched to keep student pedestrians safe
As part of the FedEx-supported Walk This Way pedestrian safety program, AIP Foundation launched a Model School Zone at Long Truong Secondary School in District 9 of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The school is located in a high-risk industrial zone with unsafe road conditions. The initiative has educated 1,300 students with pedestrian safety knowledge and has created environmental modifications, such as installing push-button pedestrian cross lights and repainting crosswalks, in the area surrounding the school. Local authorities have also committed to enlisting police patrols during peak hours to keep students safe. Mr. Thang Dao, FedEx's Senior Manager of Indochina and Country Manager of Vietnam, attended the event and was joined by officials from the National Traffic Safety Committee, Ho Chi Minh Traffic Safety Committee, Department of Education and Training, District 9 People’s Committee, and Traffic Police. FedEx has supported the Walk This Way campaign in Vietnam since December 2009, reaching more than 224,263 children in 278 schools throughout the country. Click here to view more photos from the event. Click here to read the full press release for the event. |
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Related news: Opinion piece - I just went to Vietnam and saw firsthand why self-driving cars are still a long ways off
Source: Business Insider, 5 September, 2016 When I travelled to Vietnam for the first time in August however, it didn't take very long for me to see that there’s a much bigger and more fundamental problem facing self driving cars. To anyone accustomed to driving in the US, this scene looks like pure chaos. Instead of traffic lights and polite yielding by drivers, the road is a free-for-all where every driver does whatever they want. Miraculously, they mostly avoid crashing into each other. Humans rely on a variety of subtle cues, both visual and auditory, along with the brain’s amazing parallel processing capabilities, to pull this off. On the streets of Vietnam a self-driving car will need to make hundreds of these kinds of on-the-fly predictions. And with dozens of motorbikes, cars, and pedestrians all independently moving according to their own rules, and no one clearly yielding, it’s easy to imagine a self-driving car getting overwhelmed and freezing in place, afraid to make any move. Click here to read the full article. |
Cambodia |
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Cambodian helmet safety awareness data published by the British Medical Journal
The British Medical Journal's "Injury Prevention Journal" published AIP Foundation's abstract revealing mid-term data from its Cambodian helmet safety awareness program, Head Safe. Helmet On. The piece, titled "Knowledge of, attitude toward and practice of helmet use among motorcycle passengers in Cambodia," revealed that awareness of the new passenger helmet law increased from 69% in August 2014 to 91% in August 2015. AIP Foundation used the findings to craft a mass media campaign that included television and radio commercials. Head Safe. Helmet On. was launched by AIP Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development - Development Innovation Ventures (USAID-DIV) in 2014, with the support of partners including FIA Foundation, U.S. Centers for Disease Control, The UPS Foundation, and the Cambodian government. The project was created to advocate for the creation and eventually promote awareness of a mandatory passenger helmet law that police began enforcing in January 2016. Click here to read the full abstract. |
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AIP Foundation’s Cambodia Country Director presents at conference in Australia
Pagna Kim, AIP Foundation's Cambodia Country Director, presented on helmet use in his country at the 2016 Australasian Road Safety Conference in Canberra, Australia. The annual event brought together more than 600 representatives from international governments and organizations, as well as researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and industry leaders. Kim's presentation, "Motorcycle passenger helmet use in Cambodia – a turning point?" focused on the recent AIP Foundation project Head Safe. Helmet On. In January 2016, enforcement began of a national law mandating for the first time that motorcycle passengers, in addition to drivers, wear helmets. Head Safe. Helmet On. aimed to increase awareness of the legislation and promote helmet use in Cambodia. Recent data shows that helmet use rates among adult passengers increased from 11% in August 2014 to 36% in May 2016. Head Safe. Helmet On. launched in 2014 and is a partnership among AIP Foundation, U.S. Agency for International Development - Development Innovation Ventures (USAID-DIV), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, FIA Foundation, The UPS Foundation, and the Cambodian government. |
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Mass media campaign wins two honors at the International Safety Media Awards
The International Safety Media Awards honored AIP Foundation with two awards - "Excellence in Media Evaluation" and "Gold" in the short video category - for the organization's mass media efforts promoting helmet safety in Cambodia. The accolades were announced as part of the closing ceremony of the 12th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion. The conference, titled “From Research to Implementation,” gathered 1,200 injury prevention professionals from more than 80 countries in Tampere, Finland. Conference participants helped craft the “Tampere Declaration,” which expresses a global commitment to injury prevention and safety promotion. The event was hosted by the National Institute for Health and Welfare, and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization. Click here to watch one of the public service announcements from the Head Safe. Helmet On. campaign. |
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Related News: Most Battambang night drivers on meth, officials say
Source: The Cambodia Daily, 12 September, 2016 Temporary roadside checkpoints set up along highways in Battambang Province in response to an increase in fatal traffic accidents there have revealed that about 80% of the commercial night drivers tested were using methamphetamine, according to officials. Since the beginning of last month, nearly 30 people have died in traffic accidents in the province—a stark increase from the 32 in the first seven months of the year, deputy provincial police chief Koy Heang said on Sunday. According to Mr. Heang, “yama”—a pill form of methamphetamine—was the main drug of concern, as it helped drivers stay awake during long hours on the road. “When they use drugs before driving, they drive very fast and cause accidents,” Mr. Vanny said. Upon finding that drivers were under the influence, however, police only informed them of the potential harm of driving while under the influence and sent them on their way, he said. Read the full article here. |
Thailand |
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Thailand Chairperson appears on television, radio programs to advocate for road safety
Ms. Ratanawadee H. Winther, Thailand Chairperson for AIP Foundation, appeared on Thai television and radio programs to encourage the public to participate in safer road behaviors. She also discussed the road safety situation in Thailand and advocated for increased enforcement of traffic laws. Click here to listen to Ms. Winther's interview on "Traffic Radio for Society" on 99.5 FM. The program is in Thai. Click here to watch Ms. Winther's appearance on "Thailand Today" on Channel 11. The program is in English. |
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Legal Development Program members develop policy proposals for national committee meeting
Detailed policy proposals developed by Legal Development Program (LDP) members were presented at the Policy Committee to Prevent and Reduce Road Accidents' National Meeting, which included discussions on amendments to road safety laws in Thailand. Issues addressed included adjusting speed limits in urban areas and promoting law enforcement, imposing stricter drunk driving policies, increasing driver's license requirements, improving public transportation standards, and mandating seat belt use for all passengers. Deputy Prime Minister Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan was in attendance at the meeting. Key LDP members joined him, including Pol. Col. Kriangdej Chantarawong, Khun Pisith Wongthianthana, Khun Kasarin Trintrakul, and Khun Supha Jomphan, who are also members of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation's road safety working group. Thailand has the second highest road crash death rate in the world. The World Health Organization’s Road Safety Legal Development Programme (LDP) is supported by the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS), and coordinated in Thailand by AIP Foundation. It aims to build the capacity of its members to improve road safety legislation in the country that will help reduce road crash deaths. The LDP is a collaboration among AIP Foundation, the World Health Organization, and the Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety to build the capacity of its members to improve road safety legislation in the country. |
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Street Wise program, supported by Chevron, accomplishments presented at government meeting
The Street Wise team presented on its program's progress thus far at the Provincial Meeting of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation of Songkhla Province. The program, supported by Chevron, provides road safety education to students at six target schools in the area. The meeting was held to monitor the road safety initiatives of about 160 government agencies, including the Songkhla Department of Land Transportation, Songkhla Department of Rural Roads, Songkhla Primary Educational Service Area Office, and Songkhla Provincial Police. Street Wise launched in 2014 and helped raise student helmet-wearing rates in the Singhanakorn District of Songkhla Province from 3% to 33% in its first year. |
China |
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Related news: Chinese man cheats death by inches as a heavy tank truck spins out of control and ploughs into the pavement
Source: The Daily Mail UK, 8 September, 2016 This is the shocking moment a pedestrian sitting next to a motorway had a narrow escape as an out-of-control tanker swerved past him. The truck was swerving to avoid hitting a sedan at a three-way junction. Unable to slow down, the truck was seen hurtling towards the pedestrian. Road accidents are common in China while pedestrians are most at risk in the country. A recent study by UK medical journal The Lancet shows that traffic accidents have become a top ten cause of death in all Chinese provinces. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 260,000 people in China die in road accidents each year. Six out of ten are vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and people on motorcycles, according to a release in May 2016. Watch the surveillance and read the full article here. |
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