 |
|
Global Newsletter April 2019 |
 |
|
Dear Friends and Supporters, This month, AIP Foundation participated in the lead-up to the 5th United Nations Global Road Safety Week by #SpeakingUp about our innovative, evidence-based programs at the Sixth Global Meeting of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and the 27th meeting for the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. We launched our 2018-2019 Helmets for Families program activities, marking six years of family-based interventions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In Cambodia, we engaged key stakeholders in a three-day training of trainers workshop to better equip government partners on how to make roads safer for garment and footwear workers. We also reached over 1,100 people over three days of outreach throughout Phnom Penh to reduce the number of crashes in the leadup to Khmer New Year, one of the most dangerous times on the road. Follow us on social media throughout the week of 6-12 May as we join road safety advocates and concerned citizens all over the world to participate in the 5th United Nations Global Road Safety Week. Learn more about it here. For more information on our activities, achievements, and related road crash intervention news, please read on. Kind regards, Mirjam Sidik
|
Table of Contents |
Global |
|
|
|
Vietnam |
|
|
|
|
Cambodia |
|
|
|
Thailand |
|
|
|
|
Employment Opportunities
|
Global |
|
Photo of the Month: CEO and Thailand Chairperson present program successes to global road safety advocates
CEO Mirjam Sidik and Thailand Chairperson Ratana Winther joined global advocates in Chania, Greece for the Sixth Global Meeting of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety and the 27th meeting for the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration. During the high-level symposium, road safety advocates discussed the Decade of Action and exchanged ideas about the new plan of action headed towards 2030. NGOs signaled their commitment of toward the Third Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden through signing the NGO Declaration and calling on governments around the world to commit strategic action and funding. Ms. Sidik and Ms. Winther presented on the successes of our Slow Zones, Safe Zones and Safety Delivered programs during the poster presentation of the Sixth Global Meeting. Several of our program photos from our Helmets for Kids and Round the World Roundtable were featured in the photo exhibition at the Sixth Global Meeting. Ms. Winther moderated a panel on gender and road safety. Additionally, Ms. Sidik gave two presentations: the first on AIP Foundation's journey to developing a national road safety e-curriculum and the second on building partnerships for improving child motorcycle safety in Vietnam. Please see more photos from the conferences here. Read the press release here. |
|
AIP Foundation presents on achievements of Vietnamese helmet law at 23rd International Union for Helmet Promotion and Education World Conference in New Zealand
Our policy and program advisor, Louise Goldman presented at the IUHPE 23rd World Conference on Health Promotion in Rotorua, New Zealand. The theme of the conference was Promoting Planetary Health and Sustainable Development for All and was attended by more than 1,000 delegates from around the globe discussing a range of public health issues and ways to promote and improve health and well-being among populations. As part of a symposium, “The Importance of Traffic Injury Prevention to Promote Health and Safety: Policies and Practice Around the Globe,” Louise shared the achievements and learnings from Vietnam's experience in the lead up to, and following the implementation of a nation-wide helmet law and the health and policy promotion efforts since. The presentation focused on our publication Head First: A Case Study of Vietnam’s Motorcycle Helmet Campaign, a collaborative work between the AIP Foundation and the FIA Foundation, which estimates that in the decade following the implementation of Vietnam’s helmet-use legislation and successful public health promotion campaigns, 15,000 lives and $3.5 billion USD have been saved due to increased helmet use. The conference was an opportunity to connect with others in the health promotion and injury prevention fields to discuss and share best practice approaches from around the globe that can be applied to promote road safety among vulnerable populations everywhere. Louise co-presented along with three other delegates who are also working to address the global burden of road traffic deaths and injuries including Dr. Carol Phillips-Cotton (Director of Traffic Safety Research and Evaluation Group, University of Georgia and Program Director of the Croatia Public Health Study Abroad program), Dr. William Potts-Datema (Chief of the Program Development and Services Branch of the CDC Division of Adolescent and School Health, US CDC), and Professor Rob Simmons (retired professor of public health, Thomas Jefferson University, USA). View more photos from the conference here. |
|
Related News: Vietnam makes firm 2030 road safety commitments at Round the World Roundtable initiative
The Vietnamese Government has become the first to make specific pledges of action to meet the road safety SDG target by 2030, in a new initiative led by the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety. AIP Foundation hosted the launch of the first in a series of ‘Round the World Roundtables’ in Hanoi. The event was supported by the FIA Foundation and UPS Foundation and attended by UN Special Envoy for Road Safety and FIA President Jean Todt, senior members of the Government of Vietnam and NGO executives. Round the World Roundtable events will be held on different continents as countries begin to mobilise and pledge specific actions in the lead up to the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Sweden in February 2020. During the event, Vietnam’s Minister of Transport handed a baton containing commitments to meet specific road safety targets. Please read the rest of the blog post from FIA Foundation here. |
Vietnam |
|
Helmets for Families engages teachers and volunteers to promote helmet wearing in Ho Chi Minh City
During the first week of April we worked with a trainer from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health to deliver a series of teacher trainings for nearly 150 teachers at four program schools in Nha Be District as part of our Helmets for Families program sponsored by Abbott. The trainings focused on correct helmet use and gave advice on how to improve helmet wearing rates at each school. Teachers enthusiastically engaged in discussion sessions and brainstormed ideas to improve project implementation. Later in the week, AIP Foundation connected with volunteers from Abbott to create educational artwork to demonstrate correct helmet use for program schools in Cu Chi District. These paintings were hung up at the school gates to remind students and parents to always wear helmets. During the 2017-2018 school year, Helmets for Families made significant impacts at new intervention schools. The average helmet wearing rate at schools in Cu Chi District increased from 18% to 90%. Additionally, the rate of parents wearing quality helmets increased from 25% to 57% at the same new project schools. Please see more photos from the launch here. |
|
AIP Foundation and AA Vietnam host new child car seat initiative workshop for key stakeholders
We hosted the first stakeholder orientation workshop for a new child car seat initiative, which is a Road Safety Grant Programme supported by Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The initiative is modeled after FIA’s toolkit for child safety in cars, and will advocate for child seatbelt use and car seats to be included in Vietnamese law. The program aims to improve child car safety in Hanoi by promoting its three-pronged approach of awareness, education, and advocacy. Program activities will include the development of communications materials in order to reach a wide audience, as well as training workshops for car-owning parents to reinforce the importance of child passenger safety and to train parents to use in-vehicle gear such as child car seats. Based on the results of the training workshops and awareness campaign, AIP Foundation will work with the government to revise existing law to include mandatory seatbelt wearing and car seat use for children. Please see more photos from the launch here. |
|
Slow Zones, Safe Zones public awareness and enforcement campaigns tackle speeding problem in Gia Lai school zones
AIP Foundation collaborated with the Gia Lai Traffic Safety Committee and Police to implement a combined public awareness and enforcement campaign to reduce speed-related road crash injuries and fatalities in school zones in Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province. This campaign is part of the Slow Zones, Safe Zones program, which is the first-ever pilot program to reduce speed in school zones in Vietnam, supported by Fondation Botnar and the Global Road Safety Partnership. The program will use mass media and community efforts to disseminate information to drivers, passengers, and pedestrians about the importance of speed reduction in school zones. Following the launch of the public awareness campaign and school zone road modifications in Pleiku City in February, the television public service announcement entitled “The Wheel” will air on Gia Lai TV from March 2019 to June 2019. In addition, 6 billboards and 160 banners are installed along the roads leading to project schools and 3,150 speed reduction flyers were distributed to parents and local residents. Pleiku Police are carrying out an action plan for enforcement of speed reduction to 30 km/h and 40km/h at two schools. During the first weeks of implementation, police officers will remind road users to enforce reduced speed to 30km/h or 40km/h when passing through the two school zones. Drivers who violate speed regulations will be fined. The enforcement campaign will last from April 2019 to December 2019. To read more about the launch please read our press release here. To see pictures of the launch here. |
|
Helmets for Families engages medical experts to enhance school and family-based interventions
Helmets for Families, supported by Abbott, introduced its sixth year of programming with a launch event held at Lam Van Ben Primary School in Nha Be District where 1,292 students and teachers received free helmets. AIP Foundation hosted the event in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Committee and Department of Education and Training. This year’s Helmets for Families program will continue collaborating with doctors and medical professionals, using their experiences working with road crash victims to educate teachers, parents, and students about the very real dangers of not wearing a helmet. “Teachers and parents play an important role to promote and sustain safe road behavior for students,” said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuong, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Traffic Safety Committee. “Without their cooperation and enthusiasm it would be difficult to re-enforce safe helmet use. Educational activities directly influence the awareness and behavior of students, parents and community members to wear quality helmets properly." Last month, teachers and parents visited doctors and patients at Cho Ray National Hospital to learn from their experiences with road-related tragedies. Afterwards, this information was incorporated into teacher trainings at program schools. Helmets for Families provides communication materials to road crash injury patients and their families at national and local hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City. Please see photos here. Please read the press release here to find out more about the event. |
Cambodia |
|
AIP Foundation equips key stakeholders with tools to make garment factories safer
Our Cambodia team engaged 45 representatives from the Transportation Working Group, National Road Safety Committee, and several government agencies in a three-day training of trainers workshop. The workshops build capacity for trainers and leading stakeholders to provide them with tips and tools to better serve vulnerable garment and footwear workers at the five factories participating in our pilot program. The workshop was composed of two days of theory and one day of fieldwork. In September, we will evaluate the effectiveness of the workshops to equip the trainers. Please see more photos from the training of trainers here. |
|
AIP Foundation organizes safe driving campaign ahead of Khmer New Year
Together with 72 government officials, police officers, youth ambassadors for road safety, and public and private sector representatives, AIP Foundation organized a safe driving campaign prior to the Khmer New Year in Phnom Penh. The main message of this campaign was "Travel safely during Khmer New Year without over-speeding." Participants distributed informational pamphlets with safety information and signs about the dangers of speeding to drivers and talked to them about risks and laws related to speeding. Speeding is the leading cause of death on the roads in Cambodia. In 2017 the Cambodian National Road Safety Committee found that 11% of all road crashes in Cambodia happened during national holidays. Many Cambodians travel to their hometowns and the roads are more heavily occupied during this time. Through this campaign, we reached 1,100 drivers on the roads and at bus stations. Additionally, Cellcard and Metfone, two national mobile phone companies in Cambodia, supported this campaign by sending the campaign message to 1,000,000 subscribers. See more photos from the campaign here. |
Thailand |
 |
