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Global Newsletter December 2016 |
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Dear Friends and Supporters, In December, I traveled with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Samdech Krolahom Sar Kheng and a delegation of government officials to London as they were presented with a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for their robust law enforcement efforts. In Hanoi, we celebrated our nearly decade-long partnership with the Princeton in Asia fellowship program during a reception held by U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius We launched a new partnership with APM Terminals in Vietnam, Lifting Safety, , which aims to address road safety issues in a community surrounding a major shipping port. In Cambodia, we expanded our Manulife Helmets for Families program to a new province. Our accomplishments like these would not be possible without the dedication of each one of you. On behalf of the AIP Foundation team, I would like to wish you a wonderful New Year! Kind regards, Mirjam Sidik
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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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Photo of the month – Students lend each other a helping hand
A student from Tran Quoc Toan Primary School helps her classmate properly fasten her helmet, which was donated as part of APM Terminals’ Lifting Safety program. |
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H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent honors Cambodian government for saving lives with recent road traffic law enforcement
At an annual awards ceremony, H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent honored Cambodia’s National Road Safety Committee (NRSC) for its robust enforcement of the country’s new road traffic law, including the mandatory use of motorcycle helmets for passengers, which has saved lives and prevented serious injuries. Two hundred and fifty-nine fewer road crash-related deaths and 596 fewer injuries occurred in the first 11 months of 2016 compared to the same period of time in 2015. “Road crashes cause 1.25 million deaths around the world every year and low-income countries like Cambodia tend to suffer the most,” H.R.H. Prince Michael of Kent said. “The NRSC’s work is a powerful example of positive changes, and has enhanced legislation, law enforcement, and cooperation between public sectors and civil society organizations which could lead to a new innovation. Collaboration as such is a reflection of reason I created these honors nearly 30 years ago.” Mirjam Sidik, CEO of AIP Foundation, and Pagna Kim, Cambodia Country Director of AIP Foundation, joined a delegation of Cambodian lawmakers in London as they were presented with the award. During the visit, the group also attended a workshop launching the Global Forum for Road Safety Legislators. The workshop was co-hosted by the World Health Organization and Towards Zero Foundation. In 2015, road crashes caused 30 times more deaths than malaria, dengue fever, and land mines combined in Cambodia. The new legislation, for the first time requiring passengers and drivers to wear helmets while traveling, was adopted in 2015 and enforcement commenced in January 2016. The Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards was organized by RoadSafe, a London-based charitable partnership that brings together representatives from the private sector, government, and road safety community to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries around the globe. View more photos from the event here. Read the full press release here. |
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U.S. Ambassador celebrates Princeton in Asia fellowship program
The AIP Foundation team joined U.S. Ambassador Ted Osius and his husband, Mr. Bond, at their home in Hanoi to honor the Princeton in Asia fellowship program. Greig Craft, founder and president of the nonprofit, as well as Peggy Moriarty and Molly Ellison, both members of the development department, attended the celebration. Both Moriarty and Ellison came to AIP Foundation through the fellowship program, which has partnered with the road safety nonprofit for nearly a decade. Princeton in Asia has been sending recent college graduates to teaching and non-teaching posts throughout Asia for more than 120 years. Ambassador Osius has been an avid supporter of AIP Foundation's mission to make roads safe in Vietnam. He has served as Ambassador to Vietnam since 2014 and was one of the first U.S. diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi more than two decades ago. |
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Related News: Safe Kids Summit hears call for a safe and healthy journey to school
Source: FIA Foundation, 12 December, 2016 Safe Kids Worldwide, a U.S.-based child injury prevention nonprofit, held its 2016 summit in Washington, D.C. on 8 and 9 December. Following a keynote by the UN Special Envoy for Road Safety, Jean Todt, who highlighted progress during 2016 in translating the Brasilia Ministerial Declaration into a new UN General Assembly Resolution and securing support from countries for a process to establish a new UN Road Safety Fund, Dr. Margie Peden of the World Health Organization presented the new ‘Save Lives’ public health package intended to provide focus for governments seeking to scale up action to meet the Sustainable Development Goals’ road safety target. The event, chaired by Safe Kids CEO Kate Carr, also heard a keynote from the Administrator of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Dr. Mark Rosekind, who called for renewed effort to implement the Safe System approach. Read more about the summit here. Read the full article here. |
Vietnam |
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APM Terminals partners with AIP Foundation to promote road safety in Vietnam
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 |
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Government official shares story about her son's road crash during
Helmets for Families orientation workshop
During a recent Helmets for Families orientation workshop in Ho Chi Minh City's Hoc Mon District, a government official spoke to stakeholders about her son's fatal road crash to stress the importance of the program. Mrs. Bui Thi Kim Anh, Vice Chief of the Hoc Mon District Bureau of Education and Training, shared her story with nearly 40 representatives from local government agencies and four program schools. During the meeting, attendees were also trained on a school guidelines curriculum that will help educate students, develop school safety policies, and craft monitoring and evaluation tools. View more photos from the training here. |
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Mid-term review workshops reveal increased community commitment to helmet use
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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FE Credit donates more than 1,000 helmets to primary and special needs schools
FE Credit, in partnership with AIP Foundation and local government agencies, donated more than 1,000 quality helmets to students and teachers from Nguyen Van The Primary School and Anh Duong Special Education School in Ho Chi Minh City. The activity kicked-off FE Credit’s helmet safety program, which will also provide these communities with road safety education. The vast majority of these students come from low-income backgrounds and the schools are located in high-risk areas. The kick-off event was held at Nguyen Van The Primary School, which is located along a national highway with heavily mixed traffic. The initiative is part of FE Credit’s broader community-focused initiative, Make Dreams Come True. View more photos from the event here. |
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AIP Foundation hosts road safety trainings at international university
For two weeks, AIP Foundation discussed helmet safety, speeding, and defensive riding techniques with undergraduate students at RMIT University's campuses in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The presentations were part of the university's Defensive Rider program, an initiative that aims to educate the young drivers on how to navigate Vietnam's roads safely. RMIT University is a public research institution based in Australia, with two campuses in Vietnam and one in Spain. Its Ho Chi Minh City campus opened about 15 years ago and the Hanoi campus was established in 2004. |
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Teachers from school for special needs students trained in road safety curriculum
AIP Foundation staff trained 23 teachers from a primary school and a school for special needs students on a comprehensive road safety curriculum. Nguyen Van The Primary School and Anh Duong Special School for Disabled Students are both located in District 12 of Ho Chi Minh City. |
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Related news: In Vietnam, traffic accidents kill more people than pandemic diseases
Source: Vietnam Express International, 24 November, 2016 Road crashes remain the biggest single cause of fatalities in Vietnam even as the country has been working to make local roads safer. Last year, road crash deaths were 30 times higher than the number of people killed by pandemic diseases, Nguyen Thien Nhan, chairman of the Vietnam’s mass political organization Fatherland Front Central Committee, said at a conference Wednesday. Official statistics show that in the past five years, the death toll has decreased by 21 percent to about 48,000 and the number of injured people has shrunk by 22 percent to 162,000, compared to the previous five-year period. Read the full article here. |
Cambodia |
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Fifty parents learn about helmet use, safety precautions for upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations
As part of the Helmets for Families program, 50 parents took part in a training workshop in which they learned about the importance of helmet use as well as safety precautions they should take during the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations, a time when road crash rates tend to increase. AIP Foundation and Manulife Cambodia launched this year's edition of the family-focused program earlier this month by providing more than 1,000 helmets to students, teachers, and mothers at Kessararam Primary School in Siem Reap Province. During this training, mothers were also provided with free, high quality helmets. The training reiterated the importance of consistent helmet usage to prevent head injuries and protect families on Cambodia's roads. |
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More than 900 helmets donated to school on high-risk Cambodian national highway
Helmets for Families today expanded its road safety education efforts to Kessararam Primary School in Siem Reap City and donated more than 900 helmets to the school community. Approximately 80% of students at Kessararam Primary School commute to school via motorcycle or bicycle. In 2014, a student at Kessararam Primary School was killed in a road crash, and over the past two years, four others have been injured. View more photos from the event here. Read the event’s full press release here. |
Thailand |
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Thai team shares
Street Wise program successes with Chevron
Oratai Junsuwanaruk, AIP Foundation's Thailand Country Manager, shared the recent successes of the second phase of Street Wise with representatives from Chevron Thailand Exploration & Production, Ltd. During Phase 2, which wrapped up this fall, helmet wearing-rates at program schools increased from 3% to 38%. Student pedestrian safety knowledge and behavior also improved throughout the program, with 29% of students using a crosswalk at baseline compared to 91% at endline. The most recent phase of Street Wise was implemented in the Singhanakorn and Muang districts of Songkhla Province. It was launched in 2014 by AIP Foundation and Chevron.. |
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Thai safety expo promotes inclusive design, features booth on road safety program in Songkhla Province
AIP Foundation’s Thai team hosted a booth discussing road safety initiatives, particularly its school-based Street Wise program in Songkhla Province, at a large-scale conference that focused on inclusive design. The Thailand Friendly Design Expo took place at the IMPACT Exhibition and Convention Center and featured products, technologies, and innovative designs that accommodate diverse populations, including the elderly and disabled. View more photos from the event here. |
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Twenty-four key stakeholders, 11 school officials prepare to launch helmet safety program in Uttaradit Province
Twenty-four representatives from the public and agriculture sectors, as well as 11 school officials, met to prepare for the launch of a new Helmets for Kids program in Uttaradit Province in northern Thailand. During the stakeholder meeting, representatives from the Lap Lae Agricultural Cooperative, which boasts 8,000 members, met with the provincial-level Department of Disaster Mitigation and Prevention, and Road Accident Victims Protection organization. The school-based meeting, which was attended by the headmaster of Thai Rath Wittaya 5 School and 10 teachers, taught attendees about the helmet safety curriculum. Attendees also discussed a recent motorcycle crash that claimed one of their student’s lives. The program, which is supported by The Natural Growth Co., Ltd., an organic rice distributor, will launch in January 2017. Many of the parents’ of the students at Thai Rath Wittaya 5 School are farmers that work with company. |
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Related news: 2,300 police to watch roads on 'deadly days'
Source: Bangkok Post, 22 December, 2016 More than 2,000 police officers will be deployed to manage traffic and ensure the safety of motorists nationwide during the upcoming New Year holidays. Highway Police Division chief Somchai Kaosamran said about 2,300 highway police will be stationed across the country to help with traffic management and provide assistance and safety to travellers during the New Year break between Dec 31-Jan 3. During this period in 2014, 91 people were killed and 392 injured in 227 road accidents while 49 died and 227 were wounded in 146 road accidents across the country during the same period last year. The main cause of accidents are speeding, dozing off behind the wheel, cutting in front of other vehicles, driving in the wrong lane and jumping traffic lights. The poor condition of roads and vehicles and the weather also contribute to accidents. Read the full article here. |
China |
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AIP Foundation signs agreement with educational organization to work with 80 primary schools
AIP Foundation signed an annual Memorandum of Understanding with the Education Committee of Kai Zhou District in Chongqing Province, signifying the continued cooperation between the two organizations to implement Walk Wise road safety activities at 80 primary schools in the area. "This has been a very successful program in terms of improving the road safety awareness of students and parents and even teachers," Mr. Chen, Vice Director of the Education Committee, said. "We hope there will be more success stories in the next year." In China, pedestrians account for 26% of road user deaths. AIP Foundation and Chevron launched Walk Wise in 2012 to combat this statistic. |
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