Not coming from a medical background, but with business talent and a desire to contribute, Ho Thai Binh and his associates founded Survival Skills Vietnam to spread first aid knowledge to the community.

PROVIDING FIRST AID TRAINING FOR VIETNAMESE PEOPLE

Until now, Ho Thai Binh still vividly remembers the times he had accidents when he was a child. Binh told us that he had been seriously injured four or five times, but thanks to his mother who worked in the medical field and knew timely first aid techniques, he was able to escape death. Later, when studying abroad in Australia, the boy born in 1990 realized that Vietnamese people lack basic first aid skills and that not everyone in an accident is as lucky as him.

First aid is the initial support for people in distress, injury, or acute illness before professional medical intervention. In many countries, first aid is considered essential knowledge that should be taught to students from primary or secondary school. But in Vietnam, it is only when they study the military program in high school that students are exposed to this basic knowledge.

Lack of first aid knowledge in the community has led to many unfortunate incidents. Around 2016, while volunteering at the non-profit Survival Skills Vietnam Project, Binh heard the sad story of a high school student. Her father died 2 months ago due to sudden cardiac arrest, and no one in the family knew how to perform CPR. When the ambulance arrived it was too late.

“Vietnamese people still think that first aid knowledge is only for doctors, but in reality, in many cases, we only have 8 minutes to save people. In developing countries, “Vietnamese people still think that first aid knowledge is only for doctors, but in reality, in many cases, we only have 8 minutes to save people. In developing countries, ambulances cannot arrive in such a short time. Learning first aid knowledge is learning for others and for yourself. When you know first aid knowledge, you can help others and vice versa, if you are unfortunate enough to have an accident, others can help you,” Binh shared.

In 2017, Binh officially joined the establishment of the Social Enterprise Survival Skills Vietnam (SSVN) with the first two co-founders of the Project, Ms. Trang Jena Nguyen and Tony Coffey, an Australian emergency specialist. With previous accumulated experience and business ability, he took on the position of Director, the other two members were Deputy Directors, in charge of expertise.

SSVN aims to provide and train first aid courses and important life skills classes for businesses, adults and children, with the mission of reducing preventable casualties in Vietnam. To date, SSVN’s certification has been recognized for the purposes of applying for jobs, immigration, practice… at many international businesses and many countries. From 2022, SSVN’s first aid and water rescue training certification will be recognized by Surf Life Saving Services – the largest water rescue organization in Australia.

SSVN aims to provide and train first aid courses and important life skills classes for businesses, adults and children, with the mission of reducing preventable casualties in Vietnam. To date, SSVN’s certification has been recognized for the purposes of applying for jobs, immigration, practice… at many international businesses and many countries. From 2022, SSVN’s first aid and water rescue training certification will be recognized by Surf Life Saving Services – the largest water rescue organization in Australia.

SOCIAL IMPACT BUSINESS MODEL

SSVN is classified as a Social Impact Business (SIB) in Vietnam, a concept that refers to businesses that combine a commercial business model with the goal of creating a positive impact on society.

When asked why he decided to switch from a non-profit project to the SIB model, Director Ho Thai Binh said that this is the only way for the business to develop sustainably. During the non-profit project phase, all activities of SSVN were funded by the founders themselves. But then, when first aid knowledge became more and more popular, personal resources were not enough to operate, Binh and the group members had to think of ways to go the long way and achieve the set goals.

Up to now, SSVN has built channels to share first aid knowledge online to the community, through Fanpage, YouTube, website as well as e-learning program to learn in-depth theory remotely. SSVN charges for on-site practical courses, due to the high cost of organization, requiring many teachers to guide each student. Profits from this activity are used by SSVN to support disadvantaged and vulnerable groups or those who care for vulnerable groups such as students, people with disabilities, teachers or caregivers of people with disabilities, and people who do volunteer rescue work.

Every year, SSVN’s teaching staff – most of whom come from the medical industry – will be retrained by foreign experts to gain the latest knowledge in the field of first aid. Similarly, teaching curriculum is also continuously updated according to international standards.

Binh proudly said that although it has not been able to change the awareness of the entire community, from 2015 to now, SSVN has helped 100,000 people access first aid knowledge, of which 1/3 learned in the traditional form and 2/3 learned online. Many businesses have voluntarily registered for SSVN courses every year for their employees.

After being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, unable to conduct skill practice classes, causing a serious decline in revenue, SSVN is gradually recovering. With the support and attention of domestic and international organizations for the SIB business group in general, the Director of SSVN believes that they will soon regain growth momentum and complete this year’s goals.

Source: Investment Newspaper