HO CHI MINH City, Vietnam - September 11, 2012

Starting from today, with the support of  the World Health Organization (WHO) and AIP Foundation, dedicated units of the traffic police will commence enhanced helmet wearing enforcement operations in five municipality districts in Ho Chi Minh City, targeting school-aged children who ride as passengers on motorcycles.

Scaling up enforcement is the latest activity in AIP Foundation’s partnership with the National Traffic Safety Committee (NTSC), the Road and Rail Traffic Police Department, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), and WHO that has made AIP Foundation’s “Children also need a helmet” campaign so successful. “Children also need a helmet” has laid the groundwork for successful enforcement, by improving road users’ understanding of the need for a helmet and, thereby, creating a favorable environment for sustainable societal change that would be unachievable through legal means alone.

Police activities will be accompanied by information counters set up in target districts where flyers and helmets are distributed to educate violators who are stopped by police, as well as billboards and posters installed across the city and a documentary specifically produced and broadcast about police enforcement on child helmet use. Other ongoing communications activities include airing of the campaign’s TV commercial, and social media discussions. Following the successful piloting of this program in HCMC, partners anticipate scaling up to include Ha Noi and Da Nang within the next six months.