Dear Friends and Supporters,
As we celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year, surrounded by family and friends, we are proud to reflect on our work during 2021.
Building on our successes from the past year, we enter into the year of the tiger with the same determined spirit as always. January and February have shown our spirit is defined by resilience, fierceness, and steadfastness as we begin the work of implementing our programs in these early months.
In Vietnam, the Big Data Screening has been completed in our latest innovative AI for Good road safety program,
AI&Me: Empowering youth for safer roads in Vietnam. The screening methodology harnessed the power of Big Data with a human approach centered on high-risk communities and urban environments. 86% of participants from our training found the Big Data Screening Methodology presented in the training useful/very useful for government stakeholders to identify high-risk locations easier.
Advocating for increased helmet safety has been at the core of our work for so long so today we are proud to share the legal updates and fines from Vietnam. As of January 2022, the fines for not wearing a helmet have been raised to 600,000 VND (roughly 26 dollars). The fine has been doubled since the previous year.
In Thailand as part of the
Street Wise program supported by Chevron, we launched the Road Safety Corner to encourage life-long road safety skills for primary school students. Students will be able to explore hands-on different road safety topics such as ‘how to be safe on the road’. In addition, the program also launched the new e-books, empowering primary and secondary school students to be safer on the road in Thailand. These programs are characterized by their interactivity and allowing students to become autonomous learners. In the context of a global pandemic, this is vital to ensure students continue learning road safety skills.
With the support of our new donor, Bridgestone, we launched a student training for secondary school students. During the training, they had hands-on experience with real practical road safety skills. The key element of the Bridgestone Youth Road Safety Champions program is that we are actively training our future leaders in the field of road safety.
Cambodia is featured in a joint report on ‘The Textile and Clothing Sector in Asian Graduating Least Developed Countries: Challenges and Ways Forward’ published by The World Trade Organization and the United Nations. As we face a post-pandemic world, we must ensure that safe commuting is also part of the garment factory workers’ rights we are advocating for.
In this spirit, the annual collaborative workshop on the best practices and experience sharing was held in Cambodia to find multilevel solutions to improve commuting conditions for garment and footwear factory workers.
Following the launch of the regional
Heads Up! Video competition we are excited to announce the board of judges! Including five leading expert representatives from AIP Foundation, FIA Foundation, FIA Region II (Asia Pacific) & FIA Region Member Clubs, each judge brings their own vision and has been uniquely selected within their area of expertise to chose the best road safety videos. The road safety videos will be made by youth, for youth. They will empower their peers and communities across four ASEAN countries to raise awareness on quality helmet use.
With an innovative and sharing mindset, with the FIA, FIA Foundation, and FIA Region II we hosted an ECE 22 helmet standard workshop by the FIA Community for the FIA Region II clubs in the Asia Pacific region. Participants from FIA Region II had the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge-sharing network among FIA Region II clubs and those with international organizations in the field of road safety including helmet safety.
On the international stage, we called for the right of every child to have a safe and accessible journey to and from school. Lifelong learning is the key to inclusive, safe, and sustainable cities around the world.
At AIP Foundation, we strongly believe in the steadfast notion that ‘sharing is caring’. I am delighted to introduce to you the newest section of our newsletter, called ‘BEYOND’, covering highlights from around the world on the topics of road safety, SDGs, creative ideas for a better future and smart cities with improved livable areas. We also want to highlight the incredible and inspiring work of our friends, partners, volunteers, and associates who are working to create safe roads for life around the world. Check out the awesome story covered this month, below!
Please read on.
Sincerely,
Mirjam Sidik
CEO, AIP Foundation