Asia Injury Prevention Foundation
Encyclopedia
| Asia Injury Prevention Foundation | |
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| Founder: | Greig Craft |
|---|---|
| Type: | Non-Profit Interest group |
| Founded: | 1999 |
| Focus: | Traffic Safety |
| Headquarters: | Hanoi Hanoi Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam... , Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –... , with branch offices in Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam... and Bangkok Bangkok Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom... |
| Method: | Media attention, direct-appeal campaigns, helmet donations |
| Area served: | Southeast Asia |
| Website: | http://www.asiainjury.org |
Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (commonly known as 'AIP Foundation') is a non-profit enterprise
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
begun to combat the growing traffic crisis in Southeast Asia. Across the globe in developing countries, traffic safety is becoming an increasingly important issue as commerce is increasing at a rapid rate, while travel infrastructure has not been given the time, nor the opportunity to catch up. Every day 3,000 individuals and 500 children are killed because of road accidents. Over 85% of these causalites occur in low and middle-income countries. In Vietnam alone, 35 young people are killed a day from traffic accidents. Between 1999 and 2002 motorcycles on the road rose 100% and road deaths increased over 90%. In 2002, Vietnam recorded 28,658 traffic accidents. There were 12,735 fatalities and 32,131 injuries, that is a rate of 14.4 deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles. In the United States, the comparable figure is 2.1 deaths. To combat this situation, AIP Foundation began Helmets for Kids (HFK), a program which endeavors to provide every child a helmet.
Protec
Owned by AIP Foundation, Protec is a non-profit helmetHelmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...
manufacturer. Its mission is to produce high quality, yet affordable helmets that address the needs of Vietnamese and other South Asian consumers. Common complaints among the Vietnamese towards the full-faced helmets on the market is that they are too hot and heavy. As a result, these helmets are rarely worn because the heat, as well as the limited viewing capacity makes them unfeasible. Protec, and other south-Asian helmet producers, have begun selling a tropical helmet. Similar in structure to bike helmets in the west, tropical helmets are lightweight, have multiple air vents, and do not cover the ears or side of the face. In Vietnam, this is extremely important. City roads in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
or Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
are saturated and a motorcyclist will often be surrounded by three or four other motorists, all of whom would be hidden if the driver was wearing a full-faced helmet. Protec was established, not only to provide quality safety equipment, but also to enable Asia Injury to be self-sustaining. Protec profits are directed back to Asia Injury to fund further traffic safety programs.
Helmets for Kids
Helmets for Kids was officially launched on November 19, 2000 in Ho Chi MinhHo Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
City by former US President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
along with founding sponsors APL and BP
BP
BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...
. 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. Through donations to children, helmet use within the whole country slowly increased. Education on helmet safety began through the distribution of brightly-colored booklets about road safety to schoolchildren and accompany manuals to their teachers. AIP Foundation also manage to create public safety advertisements, which ran in several Vietnamese newspapers. By the end of 2007, over 300,000 helmets were distributed in South Asia. Even though the majority of helmets go to Vietnamese children, HFK ceremonies have also been held in, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, and Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
. By September 15, 2007, the government made helmet-wearing mandatory on all provincial roads. On December 15, 2007, the compulsory helmet law will go national and will take effect in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Helmet laws are still being worked on in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos.
On November 6, 2007, to show international
International
----International mostly means something that involves more than one country. The term international as a word means involvement of, interaction between or encompassing more than one nation, or generally beyond national boundaries...
support and recognition of the Vietnamese road safety crisis an HFK event was attended by US Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez
Carlos Gutierrez
Carlos Miguel Gutierrez is an American former CEO and former U.S. Cabinet Member who is currently a Vice Chairman of Citigroup's Institutional Clients Group. He has previously served as the 35th U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 2005 to 2009...
, and his delegation of 23 leading American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
companies.
Controversies
A controversy has been the introduction of tropical helmets, which do not protect the jaw bone but only the skull. These helmets are internationally recognized by the WHOWho
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...
as an alternative to full-face helmets which are very costly and extremely uncomfortable in hot climates. As the Vietnamese law still covers full-face helmets, motorbike riders in Vietnam now can choose to wear a full face helmet, but they must wear some kind of helmet. Giving people the choice of tropical helmets was seen as a necessary condition to reach near-universal helmet use rates.
Before the helmet law came into effect on December 15, 2007, a few development experts, including Tadamich Hoshi of the Japan International Cooperation Agency
Japan International Cooperation Agency
The Japan International Cooperation Agency is an independent governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance for the government of Japan...
(JICA), were quoted as saying that the planned date for the law was too early. Much of this concern may have been due to fears that, like the helmet laws already in existence in Vietnam (passed in 2000 and 2001), this one would be ignored and the political capital spent to pass it would have been wasted. This has not been the case. Helmet wearing rates in the country reached 99% on the day of enforcement and have continued to remain high - hovering between 80 and 90%. Rates drop in the evening and on weekends when enforcement is not as stringent.