Hundreds of fans packed into the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s outdoor ‘active space’ to see Crayon Pop’s first ever live performance in Thailand as part of the launch of ‘The 7% Project’, a campaign to increase motorcycle passenger helmet use among children in Thailand—led by the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation and Save the Children.

The Korean girl group Crayon Pop ignited the crowd by performing their latest single Uh-ee, then Lonely Christmas and to the delight of the the crowd their global hit ‘Bar Bar Bar’ which saw fans dancing in sequence to the addictive routine.

Speaking on stage, Geummi, Ellin, Choa, Way and Soyul expressed their support for the 7% Project campaign and said they wanted to help raise awareness around the issue by making helmet wearing popular. “We wear helmets all the time and we can dance, sing and do almost everything without the helmet being an obstacle so we want to help promote that especially to children,” said the five member girl group.

Thai stars, Gail Sophicha, dance crew ‘SaCrew’, internet sensation KruNoklek and Bangmod school teachers helped make the event an evening to remember.

“This marks the official launch of ‘The 7% Project’ and our campaign to make roads a safer place for children begins here today. We together can affect change by sharing with our friends and family what we learned here today and by signing the pledge to help make children’s helmets a priority on www.7-percent.org,” said Allison Zelkowitz Save the Children Thailand Country Director.

The participants made the most of the festive atmosphere, packing the booth area to decorate helmets and participate in games with Marriott and Vespiario as well as pick up educational information on road safety from hosts AIP and Save the Children.

Fans together with schools, teachers and representatives from the Bangkok’s Department of Education together pledged to recognize that children traveling as passengers on a motorcycle without a helmet are in danger and to reduce the risk: families, schools, communities, law enforcers and decision makers must all work together.

Public can continue to sign the pledge via the campaign’s main website www.7-percent.org. All the signatures will be submitted to decision makers in support of the campaign in February 2015.

“I’m delighted to see such a great turnout for such an important cause. Together we are sending a clear message to everyone that children’s safety needs to come first and be prioritized as a national agenda,” said AIP Foundation Thailand’s Country Director Ratanawadee Hemniti-Winther.

Throughout the event, fans instagrammed and tweeted 'selfies' using the hashtag #helmetpop, reaching hundreds of thousands of people directly from the event.

Saul Billingsley, Director General of the FIA Foundation, said: “This is an ambitious campaign, but the prize if we succeed is immense. We cannot accept 7 children dying on Thailand’s roads every day, and the FIA Foundation encourages new donors to join us in supporting this effort.”

Marriott Thailand’s Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Sean Panton said that Marriott are globally committed to Corporate Social Responsibility and this latest project fits perfectly into the ‘Vitality of Children’ category.

"We are excited about working together to improve the wellbeing of children in Thailand and our focus is to support the national 7% helmet campaign by working with the community and the schools to make helmets “cool” said Mr Panton.

“Road safety remains an important topic for UPS, largely because our drivers, who are the front line of our business, spend most of their working time on the road,” said Edmound Lo Managing Director of UPS in Thailand.

Mr Lo added that UPS was entering their third year working with the AIP Foundation and is pleased to be part of the 7% Project launch today.

The 7% Project lead by the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation and Save the Children is pleased to have BEC Tero Music, FIA foundation, Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott Bangkok, Thai Airways, UPS, Vespiario, and 17 Magazine as official partners for this event.

To download photos and documents from the event please visit bit.ly/crayonbkk   

About the 7% Project

Each day over 1.3 million children travel as passengers on motorcycles, but only 7% wear helmets – even though it’s the law.

According to the World Health Organization, Thailand has the 2nd deadliest roads in the world. 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.

In response, the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation and Save the Children in Thailand are launching a nationwide campaign - The 7% Project - to decrease motorcycle death and injury among Thai children by increasing helmet use.

It features an integrated approach focusing on:
Enforcement – ensuring helmet use through school, peer, and police pressure
Education – teaching proper use and benefits to students and parents
Media – nationwide messaging, public mobilization, advocacy and social enterprise
Innovation – designing helmets that youth want to wear, and providing opportunities for children to customize their helmets and express their individuality

All of these components will be supported by a new cross-cutting “Behavior Influence” methodology to ensure our messages, strategies, and interventions lead to actual, positive behavior change.

Working together with teachers, parents and children, in its first year the campaign aims to create an integrated grassroots and mass media programme to mobilize decision makers to integrate motorcycle helmets into the school uniform.

As the campaign matures, The 7% Project will expand beyond schools in an effort to increase motorcycle passenger helmet-wearing rates among children to 60% by 2017.

Campaign Hashtag: #helmetpop

For more information, please contact:

Songporn Leelakitichok
Communications and Advocacy Coordinator
Save the Children International
Email: bea.leelakitichok@savethechildren.org