In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect our everyday lives. In response, societies around the world have gradually developed new lifestyles. Upholding the belief that “happiness is giving happiness to others”, Cathay Life Insurance has continuously utilized its core insurance competencies in conjunction with corporate volunteering and many other resources to create a stabilizing force in society. We offer support and care to people so that, together, we can find a new balance in turbulent times.
In 2005, Cathay Life became the first company in the insurance industry to engage in new immigrant-related issues, assisting new immigrants to adapt to Taiwanese life. As the demand of education for second-generation immigrant emerged, we have turned our focus to second-generation immigrant empowerment in recent years by strengthening their bi-cultural advantages and improving their self-identification and confidence.
For 11 years, Cathay Life has conducted various professional thematic empowerment courses, service learning practice sessions and teamwork workshops to help second-generation immigrants discover their strengths and potentials and improve their skills. Cathay Life has also leveraged our core professional expertise to organize competency training courses related to insurance, finance, and medical care to help them obtain certifications and improve their professional skills. In 2021, a total of 581 individuals received training.
In 2020, we jointly promoted the “Crown North Coast Second-Generation Immigrant Merit Program” with the New Taipei City Government. Through various activities and empowerment resources, we encouraged local second-generation immigrants to exploit their cultural advantages in Southeast Asian languages and cultures to organize activities at schools and local communities, thereby enriching the cultural heritage of the city’s crown north coast. In 2021, Cathay volunteers not only participated in related club activities but also supported these clubs in filming their activities to produce a documentary that bears witness to the learning process of second generation immigrants.
According to the Child Welfare League Foundation, as many as 71.5% of children from disadvantaged families in remote areas suffer from deficiency in education resources, lagging behind over 16 times compared to children from advantaged families. The main difference is in the lack of parenting resources, learning resources, and extracurricular activities, coupled with the high turnover of teachers in rural areas, which affects the quality of education. Cathay Life encourages children to bravely pursue their dreams with the company of volunteers and support of rewards. We also support enthusiastic teachers in improving the quality of education in remote areas, staying by the side of children so they can see more possibilities.
Since 2013, Cathay Life has given more than NT$3 million every year to fund schools in rural areas. In doing so, we hope to encourage local children to pursue their dreams with no fear of challenges and failure. We also hope that, after working hard to realize their dreams, these children will also be able to contribute to local developments, thus achieving a sustainable development for both schools and communities. In the 9th edition of the event in 2021, a total of 21 schools were selected and five films received the Documentary Awards. To date, over NT$25.1 million have been disbursed to help 145 schools in rural areas and benefit nearly 3,500 children.
Since 2013, we have subsidized the after-school care program in Keliao Village, Kouhu Township, Yunlin County. We offered learning resources, daily supportand optimized their learning surroundings. To date, we have launched these programs in four communities. In 2021, we invested a total of NT$1.8 million and reached approximately 100 local students. In 2020, we used our core insurance competencies and offered “finance and insurance courses” to help young people develop correct financial concepts and improve students’ learning interests and attitudes towards life.
In addition to helping schools in rural areas, Cathay has supprot more people, so that they can pursue their dreams with courage. Not only through grants and scholarships can people change their lives, other people’s stories can also inspire those who are at the nadir of their lives to start a new chapter.
Since 1980, Cathay has granted scholarships to students from economically disadvantaged families or with excellent academic performance to support outstanding students at all education levels. In 2020, Cathay Charity Group implemented the Cathay Youth Excellence Scholarship, which is divided into three categories, including: “Specific Accomplishment Group,” “Special Achievement Group,” and “Academic Group.” In 2021, 91 recipients were selected from 408 applicants and scholarships totaled NT$7.47 million. Furthermore, the Excellent Documentary Award was organized for the first time and extra prize money was offered to encourage the scholarship recipients to record their experience in carrying out this program. A total of 9 teams won this award.
During adolescence, young people often lacked self-identification and career orientation. For those who came from disadvantaged families may give up even more easily. Cathay Life seeks to motivate young people to change their lives. We have sponsored the Mixes Disables Troupe, formed by members with various categories of disabilities, who have visited general and vocational high school campuses and prisons to inspire disoriented students and segregated inmates through performances based on inspiring life stories. By sponsoring them, we have simultaneously supported people with disabilities, so that they can showcase their talents on stage. In 2021, it toured across 6 schools and reached 2,700 viewers.
Cathay Life not only undertakes student group insurance and offers insurance protection, but also collaborates with K-12 Education Administration in promoting the “Sustainable Campus Project”. We introduce ”Antidrug”, “Environmental Protection”, “Campus Safety”, and “Financial Management and Insurance” to schools to improve students’ health, supporting future generation. In order to evaluate students’ learning effectiveness, Cathay Life utilized our specialty in life insurance and collaborated with external industrial, governmental, and academic institutions, designing customized activities and digital teaching materials.
since 2019, Cathay Life have made anti-drug education one of the main objectives of the program. We have collaborated with professor Ping-Cheng Yeh of National Taiwan University to introduce PaGamO, an online game-based learning platform that has millions of junior high school and elementary school users in Taiwan. When students answering anti-drug questions correctly, they will gain more territories in game. This gaming mechanism has not only effectively improved students’ motivation to learn but also encouraged them to discuss anti-drug issues with teachers and parents, therefore, helping them memorize correct information about drugs. In doing so, we have helped students around Taiwan to “know drugs and say no to drugs,” thus keeping them away from the risks of drugs on campus. Furthermore, we have also trained nearly 6,000 Cathay student group service agents in Taiwan to become anti-drug volunteers. In conjunction with the three strategies—air force, army, and navy—of our anti-drug education program, As of February 2022, the program reached over 1.18 million students in total.
Gungguan Elementary School (Green Island) teachers remarked:
“Students may not respond to lectures, but they like playing computer games. By turning anti-drug education into games, this competitive learning mode encourages children to learn anti-drug knowledge and try to answer the right answer of drug-related questions.”
“We will go wherever society needs us.” Cathay works with stakeholders and various sectors of society in Taiwan to find solutions to social issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted businesses, but also charity organizations’ fund-raising. Cathay Life collaborated with companies under the LinYuan Group to organize employee donation activities. With the love of Cathay’s employees, we hope to encourage charity organizations that have long been committed to the welfare of disadvantaged people. The donation activities, which lasted one month, have raised nearly NT$9 million for the Children Are Us Foundation, Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, Andrew Charity Association, 1919 Food Bank, and Maria Social Welfare Foundation.
Taiwan is becoming a super-aged society; therefore, we are paying constant attention to this issue and finding ways to help the elderly stay healthy. In order to improve older people’s self-identification and increase their opportunities of social interaction, we worked with long-term care organizations to build three “Cathay Happiness Farms” in the North, Center and East Taiwan, thereby creating barrier-free vegetable gardens that provide suitable agricultural activities for the elderly, so that they are having a more focused and regular life. Moreover, the products they planted have become ingredients for group meals in local communities, thus enabling the elderly to continuously connect with society and recover their sense of self-worth. The three farms are maintained by a total of over 120 older people.
In 2021, the Cathay Happiness Farm in Taitung introduced the mood-boosting activity of pet chicken keeping and nurtured black soldier flies to create a positive cycle of organic production of fertilizer and chicken feed. These activities help the elders rediscover themselves and simultaneously foster a friendly natural environment.
In addition to protecting the physical and mental health of the elderly, Cathay volunteers have also cooperated with local police departments to introduce the "Anti-Fraud Tabletop Games" in local communities. By playing these games, older people in local communities have learned about common methods of fraud, thereby helping them to safeguard what they have earned through their lifetime and preventing them from falling into the traps of deceitful people.
In 2021, we organized a total of 72 sessions in which nearly 2,000 elders participated.
COVID-19 has brought huge pressure on Taiwan’s medical system. Therefore, our 2020 summer blood donation events begun several months earlier than usual. By collecting the blood donations of Cathay’s employees and policyholders, as well as local Taiwanese people, we have helped stabilize Taiwan’s medical blood supply. Twenty-two years of donation events have yielded nearly 490,000 bags of blood.
