Protect Cambodian Children from Brain Injury

In Cambodia, 12% of all road crash fatalities are students and nearly 50% of them are secondary and high school students (RCVIS Annual Report 2019). Students are mostly affected because they are just learning how to ride and sometimes partake in at-risk behaviors such as not wearing helmets. To continue adding to our mission of reducing these fatalities, AIP Foundation has recently launched its partnership with Prudential to bring their legacy program, Safe Steps, to Cambodia. 

Safe Steps is an international education campaign, founded through the collaboration of Prudence Foundation which is the charitable arm of Prudential, International Federation of the Red Cross, and National Geographic. The program which runs in several countries across Asia has been implemented in Cambodia by AIP Foundation, starting March 25th, 2022. 

The program aims to reach over 12,000 students in the next 2 years through a series of road safety interventions, including school-based road safety education, quality helmets donation, school zone modifications and community awareness raising. Through these programs, it is our goal that more students and vulnerable road users are protected against road injuries and fatalities, and more light is shed on the importance of practicing road safety in our community. 

As schools re-opened across Cambodia in November, AIP Foundation has resumed in-person activities starting with helmet donations to at risk communities. Together with our long-time partner, Manulife Cambodia, we have distributed close to 900 helmets to students and teachers at O Ambel Primary School in Banteay Meanchey Province as part of our Helmets for Families (HFF) program. 

This donation takes place at the right time as children will be protected when traveling to and from school with quality helmets and road safety training through this program implementation. Despite the introduction of a universal helmet law in Cambodia in 2015, our pre-evaluation showed that none of the students surveyed at O Ambel Primary School wore helmets. Approximately 70% of students commute by motorcycle or bicycle at O Ambel Primary School. In addition, the majority of students at O Ambel are from low-income local families, making buying a helmet for their children mostly unaffordable for parents.

The Helmets for Families program, which has operated in Cambodia since 2012, has provided almost 8,000 quality helmets to students, teachers and parents most in need. The program has delivered road safety education and skills to 6,128 students, 301 teachers and 10,847 parents across Cambodia. More than 170 children have been saved from serious head injury through the program. As the new year begins, we are looking forward to reaching more vulnerable communities in Cambodia with safe equipment and necessary road safety education through our interventions.