Cambodia - August 8, 2014

The nonprofit organization Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation has been awarded US$635,993 by the Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) program at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The grant, which supports social impact and improved outcomes for sustainability and scale, will fund AIP Foundation’s two-year project, “Head Safe. Helmet On.” to increase helmet use in Cambodia. Additional financial and in-kind support worth over US$650,000 is being contributed by the FIA Foundation/Road Safety Fund, The UPS Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and AIP Foundation.

“Head Safe. Helmet On.” aims to increase passenger helmet rates in targeted communes of Phnom Penh, Kandal, and Kampong Speu to 30 percent within the first year, and to 80 percent in the second year, thereby preventing thousands of unnecessary road crash injuries and fatalities while saving Cambodia tens of millions of dollars. This will be accomplished through a series of three, mutually-reinforcing components:

• A school-based helmet program that creates a new generation of safer road users;
• A communications campaign that uses mass media to change behavior; and
• An advocacy campaign that accelerates critically needed legislative change.

Today, AIP Foundation introduced and shared the project’s activities at a nationwide stakeholder workshop in Phnom Penh. Participants included national-level government officials, international agencies, and representatives from the targeted provinces.