HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam—December 29, 2020

Worldwide, more than a million children and young people suffer head injuries due to road crashes. The financial costs of this road crash crisis impact high-income countries, but disproportionately affect low- and middle-income countries and their vulnerable road users. In Vietnam, 2,150 children lose their lives each year on the country’s roads.

In the lead-up to the new year, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City joined representatives of the Vietnamese government and UPS Vietnam to promote child helmet safety and encourage safer behaviors of students, teachers, and their parents on the roads at a closing event for the Safety Delivered program.

At the event, representatives of AIP Foundation, the U.S. Consulate General HCMC, UPS Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh City officials of the Traffic Safety Committee, Department of Education and Training, and Public Security Agency joined students, parents, and teachers at program schools to raise awareness of the life-saving importance of helmet-wearing among children and in communities.

The event showcased achievements in child helmet-wearing at program schools through Safety Delivered activities and featured an award ceremony to winners of AIP Foundation’s “Three Steps, Be Safe” helmet safety dance competition, which also received a creative submission from the U.S. Consulate General HCMC.

The Safety Delivered program is supported by The UPS Foundation and implemented by AIP Foundation in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. The program aims to reduce road crash injuries and fatalities among vulnerable motorcyclists by working with young drivers to improve their driving behaviors and by increasing child helmet use.

In Vietnam, the program delivers road safety education to children and promotes access to safe equipment through the distribution of helmets. Through its work, AIP Foundation has expanded to advocate for and shed light on the need for increased helmet quality in Vietnam to better protect vulnerable road users.

The second of the two-day closing event will be hosted in the program’s northern province, Thai Nguyen, where the Safety Delivered program will share the program’s achievements and challenges ahead with honored guests and attendees.