VINH PHUC Province, Vietnam - December 19, 2019

In response to the Vietnam National Traffic Safety Committee’s 2019 traffic safety action plan, which calls for better traffic safety measures for motorcyclists and passengers, AIP Foundation addressed non-helmet use among children through itsHelmets for Kidsprogram byproviding more than 400 helmets to at-risk students at Phu Xuan Primary School in Binh Xuyen District, a rural district of Vinh Phuc Province in the Red River Delta region of Northern Vietnam. The Helmets for Kids is supported by the Vietnam Garment Manufacturing Company (VNG) – TAL Apparel.

At the helmet handover ceremony, students and parents from Phu Xuan Primary School were in attendance, in addition to representatives from the National Traffic Safety Committee, Vinh Phuc Traffic Safety Committee, Vinh Phuc Department of Education and Training, Binh Xuyen Bureau of Education and Training, and the Binh Xuyen People’s Committee. AIP Foundation staff and representatives of TAL Apparel also attended the ceremony.

Pre-helmet observations conducted by AIP Foundation showed that while more than 95% of the students at Phu Xuan Primary School travel to school by motorcycle with adults or alone on bicycles, 0% of students were found to wear helmets.

Mr. Nguyen Trong Thai, Chief of the secretariat of the National Traffic Safety Committee remarked, “The issue of non-child helmet use is of great concern, which highlights the need for strong collaboration from the private sector, such as the TAL Group, to address traffic safety issues for children. The need for greater road crash prevention awareness at Phu Xuan Primary School is of the utmost importance. Students should not be on our roads without protective equipment for their developing brains. The Helmets for Kids program will demonstrate to students, as well as their parents, the importance of wearing a helmet whenever they are traveling on a motorcycle or bicycle.”