This public awareness project will promote child helmet use, with the goal of achieving 80% helmet use rates. Every year 11,000 people die on Vietnam's roads; 4,100 are under the age of 19. Using grass-roots community events and national media, we will spread the news that it is against the law to carry a child 6 years or older on a motorcycle without a helmet, and will combat myths on child helmet use, such as the rumor that wearing a helmet can injury a child's spine.
Every day, 30 people perish on Vietnamas roads; 11 of them are young people under the age of 19. Countless others are permanently disabled, shattering family's dreams and plunging many into poverty with overwhelming medical costs and lost wages. Wearing a helmet is a proven "vaccine" against traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle crash, reducing risk of injury by 69% and death by 42%. Despite the availability of this "vaccine" and supportive legislation, child helmet use remains as low as 16%.
We provide life-saving information that informs parents, the ultimate decision makers, about child helmet use laws and that combats myths that helmet use can have negative effects on children. Supported by the pro-bono efforts of a communications agency, we will reach and educate parents through television commercials, billboards, informative flyer distributions at community events like concerts and road shows, and Q & A sessions with healthcare professionals and road crash victims' families.
Over the next three years, we will work with the government, private sector, and other nongovernmental organizations to raise child helmet use to 80% the three largest cities, making child helmet use the norm. Currently, child helmet use rates range from 16% to 46% in the cities, and fall to lower levels in rural areas.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
