A ceremony was held on Thursday to hand over quality helmets to students and teachers at special needs Bình Minh Primary School in Hà Nội, along with helmet-wearing tutorials and road safety training, as part of Helmet for Kids programme by the AIP Foundation to commemorate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
This year’s theme for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Building Back Better,” and the primary focus is to create a more disability-inclusive, accessible, and sustainable world.
The helmets are from Protec, whose own workforce includes a large number of team members with special needs.
US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink attends the event to donate quality helmets to special needs students at Binh Minh Primary School in Hanoi. |
US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink participated in this event by delivering remarks, distributing helmets as well as taking part in the helmet-wearing tutorial with students. Against the backdrop of the 25th anniversary of Vietnam-US diplomatic relations, Ambassador Kritenbrink’s participation in this engagement demonstrated the steadfast US support for social inclusion initiatives in Vietnam while bolstering US-Vietnam people-to-people ties.
Ambassador Kritenbrink expressed his sincere appreciation to the AIP Foundation, Protec, UPS, and AA Vietnam for continuing to implement this meaningful and life-changing event year after year while highlighting the transformational impact that their efforts have had.
The event was also attended by Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Ha Kim Ngoc, who joined virtually from Washington, D.C., and by UPS, a key US supporter of road safety initiatives in Vietnam for the past 15 years.
Ambassador Ngoc said “Over the past 25 years since the establishment of US-Vietnam diplomatic relations, the Vietnamese people and children have received a lot of support from US NGOs, including AIP Foundation, together with the Administration, Congress and business community. We very much appreciate that Greig Craft and the AIP Foundation have made a lot of efforts in raising the awareness of road safety and providing helmets to many schools in Vietnam. Nowadays, the Vietnamese school-children have become the change agents for a society of safer road users.”
The US government has taken concrete strides in reducing physical and social barriers for people with disabilities in Vietnam by providing nearly $125 million of support since 1989.
The Government of Vietnam has also made improving the well-being of people with disabilities a high priority of national interest. Between 2012 and 2020, the Government of Vietnam has spent over $13 million annually to support for persons with disabilities in accordance with Decision 1019.
In August 2020 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan phuc also signed a decision to continue support programmes for persons with disabilities for the next decade.
The Helmets for Kids programme has been a signature project of AIP Foundation since its launch during the historic US presidential visit to Vietnam in 2000.
Since its inception, one million helmets have been distributed through Helmets for Kids to primary students throughout Vietnam.
Protec and AIP Foundation donated 2,500 medical masks for students, teachers, and parents in a special handover between Protec’s workers and Binh Minh Primary School’s students.
Source: VNS