Bangkok--4 Nov--Progress Thailand
Campaign videos goes viral with over 100,000 views in a week
Save the Children Thailand's new road safety initiative is turning heads as the campaign plans to expand into 100 schools by the end of the year.
Aimed at changing the way parents, teachers, students, and community members think about helmet wearing, children from primary schools throughout Bangkok have been taking part in the "School Heroes" program.
Selected by peers as the most influential within their class, these students will join forces with other "School Heroes" in their schools to design and lead activities that would help raise awareness and change helmet wearing practices among students as well as those around them at home and within the community.
The program was initiated after Bangkok Administration (BMA) agreed to pilot the project in six of its schools after Save the Children, together with the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation and representatives of schools in Bangkok, handed a petition to the BMA and asked them to support the innovative road safety scheme.
Meanwhile, an online and on air campaign - "Helmet Hero" – was launched last week featuring 11 well known public figures and celebrities such as Somsri Thammasarnsophon - Thailand's award winning teacher; acclaimed architect - Duangrit Bunnag; one of the largest motorcycle communities - Biker Chicks Thailand; leading child safety expert Prof Dr Adisak Plitpolkarnpim; renowned director and designer - Koonklang Kaoputhai; and Pol Maj Gen Ruchakorn Chorachewut from the "kids helmet campaign", to name a few.
Each "Helmet Hero" represents a different occupation, a different personality and a different way of life, but what they have in common is that they all take road safety, especially helmet wearing, seriously.
So far the videos have reached over 100,000 views online with the video "Pra Karn Knock" or "Monk Helmet," inspired by the story of assistant abbot of Patumwanaram monastery, features a Buddhist monk preaching the importance of helmet wearing at a busy Bangkok intersection, receiving the most interest.
Arunrat Wattapalin, Save the Children Thailand's Road Safety Project Manager, said that both "School Heroes" and "Helmet Idols or Heroes" will have a positive effect on the way families and communities think about safety.
"Children have the ability to influence not just others in the classroom but everyone around them, whether it's their teachers, parents or even the motorcycle taxi driver." "Through the 'School Hero' project we want to first teach children the importance of life, and how to protect it by wearing a helmet. Students then work together to conduct fun activities that help explain road safety to their friends and to people they meet at home and within the community", said Arunrat.
Hathairat Piemvit, Bangchak school headmistress, one of the schools that's participating in the project, said that there's been a definite improvement in helmet use.
"We've seen an increase in the percentage of children wearing helmets to school but more importantly I now have parents running up to me in the morning when they drop off their children apologizing if they have forgotten their child's helmet that day, that means the children are having an effect and what we are doing is working," said Hathairat.
Arunrat added that Save the Children plans to expand the project from the six pilot schools to 100 schools by the end of the year and will organize an event on 28 November 2015 inviting representative from schools, families as well as experts and related officials to discuss the child-led road safety initiative in more detail.
Thailand has the second-highest road-fatality rate in the world, according to a new World Health Organization survey. The UN health agency said 14,059 were killed on Thai roads and highways in 2012, translating to a road-death rate of 36.2 people per 100,000.
Traffic collisions kill over 2,600 kids yearly, or more than 7 children every day. Another 200 children are injured or disabled every day - 72,680 per year.
More than a million children travel as passengers on a motorcycle but only 7% wear helmets. The Asia Injury Prevention Foundation and Save the Children in Thailand have together started The 7% Project campaign with the aim to save the lives of 2,000 children and prevent 50,000 injuries by 2017.
All videos
https://www.facebook.com/7percent.org/videos
With English subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMmKipGrv4&list=PLT8JOHyTEB1S7lmm-ocfNdWIP-hQJgdR6
Campaign website: www.helmethero.org
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