Alumnus creates free first-aid app for Vietnamese speakers

It all started three years ago when Mr Binh joined a Survival Skills Vietnam first-aid workshop organised by the Centre for Community Health Research (CHRS) and Support, a non-profit non-governmental organisation working on primary health care and community development in Vietnam.

“Joining the workshop, I realised how many times I could not have survived if my mom had not been a doctor who knew first aid,” Mr Binh said as he reflected on the experience that inspired the project. “In Vietnam vital first aid and survival skills are not taught in the curriculum. Many victims are not properly rescued or not given first aid before being sent to hospitals, causing a very high mortality rate in the country, and thus big loss, suffering and burden for families and the whole society.”

After the workshop, Mr Binh searched for first-aid apps in the online application store and was surprised that none existed for Vietnamese speakers. He immediately came up with the idea of making a free, easy-to-access first-aid app in Vietnamese.

“Over the past three years Survival Skills Vietnam has trained 12,000 people from schools, community and companies in Vietnam, and with the app we will help reach and provide first-aid instructions to even more people in Vietnam,” Binh shared proudly.

Binh then joined the project team as founder cum project coordinator for the app. With self-taught coding knowledge, he made the application’s first demo. As the project has developed, Binh has helped coordinate not only the application’s development but also crowdsourcing and promotion.

The four core team members – situated in Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, Sydney and Switzerland – have overcome the geographical distance and worked towards their shared goal.

The So Cap Cuu – First Aid SSVN was launched in September 2017.

Via step-by-step instructions illustrated with photos, application users can help themselves and others who are in emergent situations such as: bleeding, choking, poisoning, fractures, strokes, convulsions, etc. – until professional medical services can be administered. After a short period, the app has been downloaded around 1000 times on both Android and iOS stores and received high rating from users, especially parents who understand the importance of this app to the safety of their families.

“We are now moving on to fixing bugs and enhancing user experience with voice and video instructions,” Mr Binh added. “The new version will also have more functions in case of emergencies, functions like active danger warning, emergency contact list, medical profiles, etc.”

Mr Binh currently works in the finance industry and is also the President of the Overseas Alumni Association in Vung Tau.