Vietnam - July 1, 2015

AIP Foundation, with the help of Ministries and Departments of Education and schools, collected 510,768 signatures from across Cambodia, China, Thailand, and Vietnam, in support of the Child Declaration.

Part of the #SaveKidsLives campaign, the Child Declaration is a global call to action for governments to commit to halving road deaths in the Post-2015 Development Goals.

In Asia, leaders and officials have voiced strong commitment to the cause. Vietnam’s Minister of Transport, Dinh La Thang noted, “We must all hear what the children are declaring: the streets are dangerous, action is necessary to protect children, and collaboration is important.” The Ministry of Transport and National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC) announced a new helmet donation program under which the NTSC will support the distribution of helmets to students from at-risk communities in Vietnam.

Children, too, understand the urgent need for action. “I wish leaders will take action to keep children safe on the road. We want to go to school without worrying about traffic crashes,” spoke student Nguyen Duc Thinh from Vietnam, who in 2013 was involved in a serious crash. Thinh and peer Hong Anh presented 1,700 collected Child Declaration signatures from Hanoi to the Minister of Transport.