AIP Foundation awards best traffic safety booklet, photos
By Mong Binh in HCMC
The Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIP Foundation) held a function at HCMC Children’s House on Wednesday to award winners of the primary schools Traffic Safety Diary 2009 project.
Prizes went to six primary schools in HCMC where students had excelled in using words and photographs to express their understanding of road safety issues as outlined in the project, which is sponsored by Safe Kids Worldwide and Johnson & Johnson.
AIP Foundation presented the “Best Traffic Safety Diary Booklet” to Dien Bien Primary School. Second prize went to Dong Ba and the third prize to Hoang Van Thu. Each winning school received cups of their rankings as well as packs of sweets and candies.
In the category of traffic safety photos, Dong Ba Primary School won the first prize, and Dien Bien and Do Luong schools brought home the second and third prizes respectively. They also received cups and packs of sweets and candies.
As an extracurricular activity for pupils at the primary schools in HCMC, the Traffic Safety Diary 2009 project aims to increase helmet use and improve attitudes toward helmet wearing among children under the age of 14 by encouraging them to participate in journal writing and photography on the subject.
“Children do not always believe adults when we tell them helmets are important,” said Le Ngoc Diep, head of primary education division at the HCMC Department of Education and Training. “Hopefully, creating this art will help them discover the truth of that statement for themselves.”
The project is a component of AIP Foundation’s Helmets for Kids (HFK) program, which is carried out in cooperation with the HCMC Department of Education and Training and Traffic Safety Committee.
Funded by Safe Kids Worldwide, the project included a diary-writing component where four groups of second to fifth graders from each school chronicled their thoughts on road safety in their neighborhoods each week.
The project also consisted of a photography contest for students to shoot pictures of examples of safe and unsafe road practices. Each group selected their best photos and submitted them to school-wide contests.
The selected photos and articles were exhibited in the schools before being submitted to a citywide contest between the six schools. Representatives from the sponsor organizations, the Department, the Committee and AIP Foundation judged the winning entries.
In addition, to raising awareness among the target group of students the diary project seeks to improve parental perceptions of child helmet use and permanently modify primary school curriculums to include traffic safety education.
“We are striving to spark a lasting behavior change, such that no adult or child would consider letting a minor on a motorbike without a helmet,” Mirjam Sidik, executive director of AIP Foundation said in a statement sent to the Daily after the award ceremony.
“Making this change means getting the message to parents, teachers and peers – everyone who influences a student’s decisions,” Sidik said.