Newsroom

(VEN) - Greig Craft, the president of the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, announced at the Clinton Global Initiative held on 22 September a commitment to launch road safety programs at 94 schools in four countries over the next three years. These programs will reach 357,000 students, parents and teachers through direct interventions and 81 million people indirectly through public awareness education in Vietnam, Cambodia, India, and Uganda.

The AIP Foundation will implement these interventions acting as the lead NGO for the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative, an international coalition launched in 2009 with founding partners the FIA Foundation, CDC, IDB, and World Bank Global Road Safety Facility. The Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative operates under the mission "a helmet on every head" in the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety (2011 to 2020). Helmets have been proven to reduce the likelihood of serious brain injury by 70 percent and fatality by 42 percent.

On September 21, Craft delivered a presentation on the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative during the Promoting Safe Roads Action Network at the Clinton Global Initiative. In addition, the FIA Foundation announced a multi-year financial commitment to the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative.

David Ward, the director general of the FIA Foundation, said: "The Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative is the core element of our ten year, US$1 million a year, CGI commitment for improving road user behavior during the Decade of Action. Ensuring motorcycle users always wear a helmet is one of the most cost effective ways to reduce death and injury. GHVI is delivering a vaccine that has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives."

The Clinton Global Initiative, an international conference that promotes collaboration between the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other global leaders to effectively confront the world's most pressing problems with an emphasis on tangible results. In 2000, Bill Clinton launched AIP Foundation's signature Helmets for Kids program in Vietnam. Since then, AIP Foundation has donated over 500,000 helmets to children in developing countries worldwide.

Traffic fatalities are on par with the death tolls from the world's major diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis, though they receive a fraction of the attention. The WHO predicts that traffic fatalities will rise from the current rate of 1.2 million per year to 2 million per year by 2020. Children account for 40 percent of traffic fatalities and developing countries bear 96 percent of the global burden of child deaths.

Source: Vietname Economic News