Helmets for Children
Someone needed to step up
This Substack is about life in Việt Nam from the viewpoint of a 10-year expat who spent his first 60 years in a low-context culture.
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This article is an edited and updated version of one first published on my blog in 2015.
Vietnamese law requires only those six years old and older to wear helmets while riding a motorbike. Since there is very little education re helmets, most people wear something other than a sun hat only “so the police don’t stop me.” Pick any day, any street, and any town or city in Vietnam and 95% of the helmets you see will be garbage — even those considered ‘the good ones’.
The law also says that wearing a non-regulation helmet (1 and 2 above) requires a fine of 100,000 to 200,000 VND (US$4-8). I don’t know anyone who’s been stopped, much less fined, for wearing a construction hard hat or a foam bicycle helmet as a motorbike helmet.
Soon after moving to Vietnam, I made it my goal to provide free, high-quality motorbike helmets (and a little education about why to wear them) to as many young children as possible in my newest home, Đà Lạt.
From late 2015 through early 2017, I personally donated more than 750 specially-labelled Protec motorbike helmets, mostly to children of financially-challenged families. Hi-viz was a “special color” for Protec when I ordered and the first ones they made in that color. After they saw my helmets, it became a standard color.
This article is about my visit to the second school, where we gave away 293 helmets — one to each student and staff member — and had a GREAT time doing it!
In addition to the children's helmets, I decided early-on to give a helmet to each adult working at the school in any capacity, from Principal to cleaning staff. This helped excite the staff about the project and used the fact that Việt Nam is a "tribal society" to our advantage. By giving helmets to the adults, it kept the tribe of the school intact, and reinforced the importance of wearing the helmets. It also ensured that anyone who did NOT wear their helmet would stand out, when almost everyone in a tribal society wants to fit in.
The students at this school were between three- and five-years-old, so I ordered two sizes, allowing us to ensure that each child's helmet fit correctly with maximum effectiveness. There is little-to-no training in VN on proper and safe motorbike riding, and even less on proper helmet fitting, so Vy (my right-hand and translator) rounded up 11 of her friends from Đà Lạt University to help us hand out the helmets and ensure a proper fit.
I took the uni students and two Red Cross officials to lunch a few hours before the event. After lunch, we went to my house, where I showed them how to check that the helmet is the proper size before adjusting the straps to ensure the helmet will stay on in an accident or an “off”. I found it rewarding that, when putting their own helmets on to leave for the school, some of the university students readjusted their own straps. One even asked,
May I borrow one of these helmets just for today? You taught me so I now know my helmet is no good and I have to buy a good one.
I gave him one.
Stories are best told in pictures, so I will let them tell you the of the rest of the day...
The children were amazingly patient throughout the program.
Students performed many songs and dances in our honor.
The Head Principal welcomed guests, students, and parents.
A local reporter and a news videographer were at the event... and we made the evening news. We also hired both still and video photographers who later put together this compilation video of the presentations at both schools. surrounding Dalat and the city itself:
Over the next 15 months, we returned to this school and also went to my future wife’s home neighborhood (tribe) to donate all of the helmets we had left. The total cost of all the helmets donated was about US$10,000.
Thank you again to everyone who volunteered and donated to help make the children of Dalat safer. Over four events, we gave away and fit over 700 Protec motorbike helmets to students and about 50 to teachers, administrators, and staff. I could not have even begun to do this without you.
Nine years later, in 2024, I still see the occasional “my helmet” while riding around town. Most of the kids I gave them to are now in middle or high school, so they most likely passed them on to a younger sibling or cousin. Good on them!
I only wish I could do this every year as new kids come to this school for the first time. I have the time and expertise, just not the money.
A great initiative and interesting to read the thoughtful approach, giving helmets not only to the students but also to teachers and so on. Having a good plan is so important.