Volunteers from MPI Generali and Generasi Gemilang pose for a group photo
MPI Generali Insurans Bhd has partnered with Yayasan Generasi Gemilang in Malaysia to reach out to underprivileged families through Generali’s global corporate social responsibility movement, The Human Safety Net.
A recent UNICEF report said that families in the bottom 40% (B40) income bracket spend an average of 48 working hours each week, but they earn much less than an average worker. In order to make ends meet, they have to spend more time working to feed their families at the expense of spending quality time with their children.
This year, volunteers from both MPI Generali and Generasi Gemilang have reached out to an average of 45 families, with 57 individual parents and 97 children, with the Family Education program.
“The program is meant to empower and equip families, especially parents, with skills that address their specific needs and concerns to improve parent-child relationship and family well-being,” said MPI Generali chief executive K.G. Krishnamoorthy Rao. He added that more interventions focusing on communication, early learning, health, nutrition, safety, and security will be undertaken over the next three years.
“Families influenced by the Asian culture in general are not used to practicing open communication or affection,” said Vicky Liew, Generasi Gemilang’s section head of family services. “Through our sessions, we help families understand one another using simple yet meaningful activities such as identifying each other’s love language and encouraging them to put it to practice. After our sessions, a single mother who had a strained relationship with her teenage son began to put what they had learnt to practice. The mother began praising her son regularly whilst her son helped with the household chores as a way to show love to one another. Over time, their relationship has improved and they now communicate more.”
