MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT
European Road Safety Charter
Good Practice

Helmets for Kids

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Helmets for Kids

Initiative details

01/01/2021 to 30/09/2021
Public authorities
Children 0-16
18-25 - Jaunimas
Parents
Skatinti sąmoningumą

Organisation details

Johnson & Johnson SAFE Fleet - Europe, Middle East & Africa

Johnson & Johnson
Enterprise
Contact name 
Gabriel Kardos
Telephone number 
36309997316
Website 
JnJ
https://youtu.be/TWQWT8xFngs
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6bv8bcffirirfon/Helmets%20for%20Kids_Ro%20Cham%20Hoang…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d7weexqw145ll4j/Helmets%20for%20Kids_Ro%20Cham%20Kan_3…
https://www.aip-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/AIPF-10-year-helmet-la…
https://issuu.com/aipfoundation/docs/case_study_-_vietnam_national_helme/18
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/25/3/206
Please describe the main road safety challenges/problems you have addressed or are addressing. 
Every year, 2,290 children die due to road injuries in Vietnam, making it the second leading cause of death among Vietnamese children ages 514. With a population of nearly 96.4 million people and 59.2 million registered two-and-three wheel vehicles, quality helmet use is essential to saving lives. Despite the overwhelming evidence that quality helmet use can reduce the risk of serious brain injury by 69% and death by 42% in a crash, child helmet use rates continue to be as low as 4% in Vietnam. In response to this alarming reality, Johnson & Johnson has partnered with AIP Foundation since 2012 to address the low helmet wearing rates among children in Vietnam. The ultimate aim of Helmets for Kids is to improve children's safety on the roads in Vietnam by increasing their helmet use rates and road safety knowledge through a comprehensive and complementary set of objectives, which include: Increasing helmet use rates among students to protect them from traffic crash fatalities and injuries. Building capacity among teachers, parents, and government authorities by equipping them with knowledge and skills about proper helmet use and safe road behaviors. Raising public awareness about child helmet use and general road safety. Helmets for Kids targets primary school students, parents, teachers, school administrators, local traffic police, and other government representatives with traffic safety related authorities. While children are the prime beneficiaries of the project, and schools are primary project sites, the involvement of families and communities in the project activities ensures that the practice of using helmets is reinforced in homes and communities. Effective media mobilization and partnerships with the government has added a valuable dimension in reaching out to an audience outside the project scope and supporting enforcement efforts. In 2021, the initiative reached a total of 13,137 direct beneficiaries, including: 7,375 students; 451 teachers; and 5,311 parents.

Project activities

If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role. 
Helmets for Kids combines the expertise of road safety stakeholders across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to address a mutual public health concern. Johnson & Johnson partnered with AIP Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing road injuries and fatalities, to design and implement this initiative across at-risk primary schools in Vietnam. AIP Foundation supported with field implementation by engaging target beneficiaries, coordinating project logistics, and conducting project monitoring and evaluation activities. Governmental agencies at the local, regional, and national levels also played a pivotal role in designing the activities, coordinating, and facilitating program implementation, and most importantly, nurturing the legislative environment for our initiative to maximize its impact across the country.
Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented. 
Since 2012, the Johnson & Johnson Helmets for Kids collaboration has provided school children and teachers with quality helmets and road safety education to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries in Vietnam. Actions carried out through this initiative include: Helmet donation: Donating high quality helmets to students and teachers which meet Vietnam's helmet national helmet standard. Road Safety Education: Implementing a specially designed School Guidelines curriculum to teach students about the importance of road safety. Helmet Use Trainings: Training teachers and students on how to wear a helmet correctly and general road safety education. Helmet Donation Ceremony: Engaging schools and the community and increasing public awareness of child helmet use in selected project schools through kick-off helmet donation ceremonies. Parent Workshops: Parent education through workshops and signing of commitment letters. Awareness raising and media activities: Promoting the importance of quality helmets and child helmet enforcement through awareness raising campaigns and engagement with the local and national media outlets. Project monitoring and evaluation: conducting pre- and post-implementation observations and knowledge assessments. Extracurricular Activities: to sustain students' enthusiasm about helmet use. Policy advocacy: Working closely with relevant government stakeholders to promote program activities, as well as advocate for new legislative changes for helmet quality and enforcement.
List the actions you carried/are carrying out 
Date 
Thursday, 26 May, 2022

Evaluation

What has been the effect of the activities? 
From 2012 to 2020, Helmets for Kids has provided 68,420 helmets to 93 schools across 8 Vietnamese province thanks to Johnson & Johnson's support of the initiative. Since the initiative's inception, helmet use rates at new program schools have increased significantly every year, on average increasing by a rate of 73%: 2012: 15% to 98% 2013: 22% to 94% 2014: 5% to 94% 2015: 2.2% to 91% 2016: 35% to 93% 2017: 29% to 96% 2018: 13.1% to 96% 2019: 44% to 90% 2020: 15% to 86%. In 2021, the average rate of students who qualified with excellent knowledge in helmet use increased from 38.9% to 60.4% by the end of the school year. Most importantly, Helmets for Kids has saved an estimated 811 students and teachers from potential brain injury thanks to a Johnson & Johnson donated helmet. All interventions under the initiative incorporate evidence-based methodology to measure and assess impacts before and after activities are implemented: Helmet wearing rates measured using video-based helmet observation methodology developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); Student knowledge on road safety measured using structured questionnaires to assess improvements in helmet use knowledge; Severity of crash cases surveys distributed for students to self-report crash incidences that occur during program implementation detailing whether helmets were worn and the severity of their injuries; Public perception toward road safety in-depth interviews conducted with students, teachers, parents, school administrators, and government officials to assess public perceptions and attitudes toward road safety before-and-after interventions. Studies demonstrate that children are strongly influenced by the helmet-use behavior of their peers; results of Helmets for Kids demonstrate the strong influence this initiative has had on student helmet use as a result of engaging their spheres of influence including parents, teachers, and school administrators.
Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety. 
The initiative has become a catalyst for government, non-profit organizations, and corporate sponsors like Johnson & Johnson to collaborate together to develop successful partnerships devoted to saving the lives of young road users in the developing world. Thanks to the AIP and Johnson & Johnson partnership, from 2012 to 2020, Helmets for Kids has provided 68,420 helmets to 93 schools across 8 Vietnamese provinces. To build public awareness and momentum for policy change, the initiative has engaged the media to produce quality news coverage of program activities and formed partnerships with government increasing their support for road safety initiatives. Johnson & Johnson's continued engagement with Helmets for Kids over the years has facilitated the dialogue around helmet safety and contributed to the Vietnamese government's passage of hallmark executive actions around helmet use: 2012-2014: Contributions to a National Child Helmet Campaign that led to the increase of child helmet wearing rates in Vietnam's 3 major cities from 18% to 38% 2015: Launching a National Child Helmet Action Plan to increase national child helmet wearing rates in Vietnam's 3 major cities from 36.1% to 56.9% 2018: Distributing helmets to all first graders in the country; since then 5.79 million helmets have been distributed between 2018 and 2021. 2020: Incorporating a commitment to reduce the circulation of substandard helmets within its 2020-2030 National Road Safety Strategy Helmets for Kids demonstrates the effectiveness of incorporating comprehensive interventions with targeted stakeholder engagement on improving community development and road safety outcomes. This model is highly-replicable and has been implemented with similar outcomes in countries, including: Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand.
How have you shared information about your project and its results? 
Yes, visit links.