What we do

Motorcycles have become the primary mode of transportation for work, school and leisure in Southeast Asia, but helmet use has not increased accordingly. Tragically, a significant number of young children are being killed every single day due to serious head trauma caused by motorcycle accidents. 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.

In 2000, AIP Foundation launched the Helmets for Kids (HFK) program and has since distributed more than 400,000 certified Protec tropical helmets as an immediate intervention, along with providing teacher and student training on road safety. Program components include crash investigations, monitoring & surveillance, and daily traffic safety instruction. Much of HFK's success to date results from the incorporation of helmets into school curricula - effectively making helmets part of school uniforms. The development of a lightweight helmet has been hailed as "a milestone in child safety." The real success of HFK, however, can be measured by the growing number of children already saved by their helmets.

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

Helmets for Kids was originally designed to address the epidemic of child deaths on Vietnam's roads. In a society where the motorbike is the primary mode of transportation, children have become the most vulnerable passengers while riding with their parents because of a widespread lack of helmet use. In Vietnam, the problem was exacerbated by a situation where parents and drivers transporting children without helmets faced no penalty.  Annually, traffic accidents kill 4,200 children in Vietnam alone, and the young are similarly in danger in the other countries where we operate (Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos). Many of those deaths could be prevented by simple helmet use.

Helmets for Kids was officially launched on November 19, 2000 in Hanoi by former President Bill Clinton along with founding sponsors APL and British Petroleum (BP). 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.

Through the initiative, more than 400,000 helmets have been donated and distributed to children at more than 140 schools in 16 cities throughout Vietnam, as well as Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. That effort has been made possible by the generosity of more than 70 corporate sponsors. We have documented 381 cases of children that have been saved because they were wearing their HFK Protec helmets during serious accidents.