Helmets for Kids

History

In 2000, AIP Foundation launched the Helmets for Kids (HFK) program in Vietnam and has since distributed more than 500,000 certified tropical helmets at 140 schools in 7 countries.

Program components include:

• Provision of high-quality helmets to students and teachers
• Teacher and student helmet use training
• Organization of an event that draws media attention and facilitates government, private sector and public sector relationships
• Monitoring and surveillance

Much of HFK's success to date results from the incorporation of helmets into school curricula—effectively making helmets part of school uniforms. The growing number of children already saved by their helmets, however, measures the real success of HFK.

Thanks to financial support from the public and private sectors, HFK has donated free helmets to primary school children in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Senegal, the Philippines, and Nicaragua.

For more information on supporting this project, please visit this page.

A meaningful intervention

In the past decade, motorcycles have become the primary mode of transportation for work, school and leisure in many developing countries, but helmet use has not increased accordingly. Tragically, 1.3 million people perish from traffic accidents every year and nearly half of those dying are “vulnerable road users”—pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and their passengers. While we cannot change the ways and means of transportation, we can make a difference in a child's life by providing them with a helmet.

Vietnam’s success

AIP Foundation originally designed Helmets for Kids to address the epidemic of child deaths on Vietnam's roads, and the lack of road safety and helmet use education in the Vietnam educational system. In a society where the motorcycle is the primary mode of transportation, children are the most vulnerable passengers while riding with their parents because of the widespread lack of helmet use. Annually, traffic crashes kill 4,200 children in Vietnam alone. Helmet use can prevent many of these deaths.

Former President Bill Clinton along with founding sponsors APL and British Petroleum (BP) launched Helmets for Kids on 19 November 2000 in Hanoi. Since then, this innovative program has become the catalyst for government, nonprofit organizations, and corporate sponsors to work together to develop successful public-private partnerships devoted to saving the lives of children in the developing world. The program is designed to not only distribute safety helmets, but also to expose children to the importance of traffic safety at an early age, and instill an understanding of safe behaviors that will last a lifetime.  The recent passage of Decree 34, extending the child helmet law in May 2010 has validated AIP Foundation’s decade of work with children in Vietnam.  Currently, AIP Foundation implements Helmets for Kids at 32 schools nationwide.