The first Vietnamese first aid app on first aid solutions by former Australian student Ho Thai Binh helps reduce the mortality rate of people with health risks.

Mr. Ho Thai Binh (1990) is one of the former international students in Australia, Bachelor of Business, RMIT University, Master of Business, University of Queensland. He is currently holding two positions at the same time: Director of Survival Skills Vietnam Social Enterprise (SSVN) and Deputy Director of SiGen Company Limited.

Let’s talk with Mr. Ho Thai Binh to understand why he is always dedicated to promoting the development of startup projects and closely connecting with the Association of Vietnamese Students in Australia and alumni.

– As a former Australian student, why did you choose to return to your homeland to start a career instead of staying like many others?

I think that as Vietnamese people, as long as their hearts are always turned towards their homeland, whether in Vietnam or anywhere in the world, they can contribute to their country. In my case, due to my passion for solving social problems, although I studied business, during my time in Australia I also took additional courses on sustainable development. Every country has its own problems. I have the opinion that as a Vietnamese, I personally want to prioritize solving my country’s problems first. And the best way to solve this is to return to Vietnam to apply this knowledge to understand and find answers to those problems.

Your work is making great progress. What difficulties and advantages did you encounter when starting your business?

In terms of advantages, the projects all have the purpose and meaning of bringing benefits to the community, solving social issues of concern, so they also receive great support from the community and support programs from domestic and foreign organizations. Besides, it is possible to maintain a network of classmates and Australian alumni from many different fields, so you can find teammates, people to share knowledge and experience with when facing difficulties and deadlocks. However, besides the advantages, there are also difficulties like what we do, although there is nothing new in developed countries, it is even an obvious part of their country, but when brought back, it is too strange and difficult to receive acceptance from the market right from the beginning. For example, when a person has a traffic accident in developed countries such as Australia, the US, European countries, etc., it is very normal for passersby to provide first aid to the victim properly before the ambulance arrives. The participation rate is 70%. Because first aid skills are taught in school from the age of 6 and are constantly repeated on TV. However, in Vietnam, this rate is very low. I read a hospital report showing that this rate is only under 5%, and the death rate due to traffic accidents, strokes, drowning, etc. in Vietnam is higher than in countries where people learn first aid early. Vietnamese people often think that first aid is the responsibility of doctors, but in the “golden time” of just the first few minutes, even in developed countries, ambulances cannot arrive in time. When presenting the idea of ​​establishing a first aid training business, investors all said that no one would want to give this knowledge away, let alone sell it.

Mr. Ho Thai Binh attended the training course with expert Tony Coffey.

– What idea made you decide to set up a first aid company?

Initially, I was just a student in the First Aid class of Survival Skills Vietnam taught by Mr. Tony Coffey – an Australian paramedic and Ms. Trang Jena – also a former international student. After finishing the course, I found this skill very important because my mother – a medical worker – saved my life many times thanks to these skills, so I volunteered for Survival Skills Vietnam to create the First Aid mobile application and organize the first classes in Vung Tau.

One evening, in class, there was a group of high school students who traveled 20km from Ba Ria to Vung Tau to study. The group was very surprised because normally the people who learn first aid are adults, especially women with small children, who take care of the children when they have health problems or accidents. Curious, Ms. Trang Jena asked the student why he went to school and received the answer: “If I had known first aid 2 months earlier, my father might not have died.” Two months ago, when this student’s family was preparing for Tet, his father suddenly became unconscious and his heart stopped beating. However, the family did not know what to do but wait for the ambulance to arrive. When the ambulance arrived it was too late.

This story makes me wonder, if the whole team continues to volunteer, each person tries to work overtime to get more days off, saves their monthly salary to volunteer to teach in a small group, then each year at most they can only teach a few hundred people, that number is just a drop in the ocean compared to a population of 100 million people. Therefore, if we continue to do this, thousands of other people will have to watch their loved ones pass away without knowing what to do like the case above.

While looking for a solution, Vietnam has just recognized Social Enterprises (SEs) in the Enterprise Law. Social enterprise is a great idea, I can use the business knowledge I learned from Australia to create some social impact in Vietnam. And since transforming from a volunteer project into a social enterprise, Survival Skills Vietnam has more resources to increase the number of people accessing first aid skills and invest in technology to help everyone, anywhere, have access.

First aid training course.

– The company owns a very useful first aid mobile application, how did you start this project?

7 years ago, when I took a first aid class, I wondered if I was not a doctor to practice first aid every day, so I might forget after a while.

Therefore, I tried to search online and discovered that most of the information about first aid at that time was unreliable, with the purpose of selling. Medical information from reliable sources was usually for medical professionals, and people without medical expertise could hardly understand or follow it.

Meanwhile, most mobile applications are in English, there are no applications in Vietnamese. From there, I found it necessary to create a first aid lookup application in Vietnamese. However, at that time, SSVN was doing volunteer work, the money contributed was mostly the savings of the contributing members, so it was not enough to make the app. I tried to learn simple programming methods to make apps.

Because I have no programming expertise, I had to learn while doing. I made and discarded 10 buggy versions before finally creating a successful final version on Android devices with only a lookup feature and instructions in pictures and text.

Then, fortunately with the support of Mr. Trung, a student of SSVN and also a programmer, SSVN released an additional IOS version. Not long after, this information was transmitted to the Australian Embassy, ​​and the Australian government funded the development of the next version with more functions such as video and voice instructions… To date, the First Aid mobile application is the first and most popular emergency first aid lookup application in Vietnamese.

Training project for the deaf.

– As an Australian alumni, he is very enthusiastic about participating in the Association’s activities and has had very outstanding achievements. How important is maintaining the connection between international students in the diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and Australia?

Former Australian international students are those who were born and raised in Vietnam, then studied and lived for a while in Australia, thereby understanding the culture, environment, and working style in both countries.

Former Australian international students are those who were born and raised in Vietnam, then studied and lived for a while in Australia, thereby understanding the culture, environment, and working style in both countries. With one of the largest alumni communities in the world, Australian alumni are a great asset in strengthening the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.

The most recent project with other Australian alumni is First Aid Training for the Deaf, conducted with the PARD Center for the Deaf, chaired by Ms. Nguyen Tran Thuy Tien – Director of the Center. The project includes training deaf people in first aid skills, training deaf trainers to teach first aid skills to other deaf people directly in sign language, and creating a library of first aid instructional videos in sign language.

The two organisations were connected because their founders attended a training course on teaching skills organised by the Australia-Vietnam Human Resource Development Program (Aus4Skills) for Australian alumni.

Mr. Ho Thai Binh shared at the Australian Alumni Forum in Hanoi.

– What are your future plans for developing projects in Vietnam?

My company SSVN wants to bring first aid to more people, especially in areas far from big cities, where the medical and emergency systems as well as people’s awareness of safety and health are not high.

Therefore, I am in the process of looking for local partners in the education sector to transfer this model so that they can both generate profits for themselves and contribute to the community in a sustainable way.

– Thanks so much!

As part of Aus4Vietnam, Aus4Skills is a 10-year, $86.4 million Australian-Vietnam partnership to support Vietnam to develop its capabilities, seize economic opportunities, achieve long-term growth and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: vtc.vn