THAI NGUYEN Province, Vietnam - June 8, 2018

This year, our Helmets for Kids program is celebrating its sixth year of implementation and expanding into a new province. Thai Nguyen province is a mountainous, midland province in the Northeast region of Vietnam. Similar to Yen Bai province, Thai Nguyen is a multi-ethnic community with eight main ethnic groups. Thai Nguyen province also faces a precarious road safety situation. Several national roads run through the province, yet only an estimated 15% of children wear helmets.In just the first three months of 2018 there have been six crashes involving children, which resulted in a devastating six child fatalities and three serious injuries. Helmets for Kids is expected to distribute 1,500 helmets at four program schools in the new province.

On 08 June 2018, we organized our first orientation & teacher training workshop in the province at Hoa Thuong 1 Primary School. There were over 31 participants, including featured guest Mr. Tan Hoang Long, Chief of Thai Nguyen Traffic Safety Committee, as well as representatives from the four program schools and the parent council. During the workshop, teachers from the new program schools were trained to measure helmet size, to demonstrate putting on helmets correctly, and how to organize a curriculum and teach road safety concepts in the classroom.