In just over ten years, FWD has grown from its beginnings in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, and Thailand to now cover ten markets across Asia, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Cambodia.
Huynh Thanh Phong, Group CEO and Executive Director of FWD Group, said: “FWD Group has grown, developed and expanded significantly across Asia over the past 11 years, but one thing that has stayed the same is our commitment to caring as a core company value.
“As an insurer, we must earn the trust of our customers and communities every day. We’re still a young company and these grants help to demonstrate our commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of people in the communities where we live, work, and serve customers,” he added.
The charitable grants are focused on financial inclusion, career readiness, social entrepreneurship, and health/wellbeing initiatives:
- Cambodia: Collaborating with the Department of Media & Communication at the Royal University of Phnom Penh to boost financial education in Cambodia by training over 100 media practitioners and a story-writing competition to raise financial planning awareness in the wider community.
- Hong Kong SAR: Supporting the KELY Support Group to improve the mental well-being of high school students through peer support training.
- Indonesia: Extending the InnovateHer Academy 2.0 Accelerator programme in partnership with KUMPUL.ID to support female entrepreneurs with scaling up and accelerating their innovative finance and insurance technology solutions.
- Japan: Partnering with the Japan Network for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect to support the Orange Ribbon Movement.
- Malaysia: Supporting MyKasih Foundation in providing environmental and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics educational programmes for students from low-income families.
- Philippines: Expanding the JA SparktheDream financial education programme to provide out-of-school youths with financial literacy and entrepreneurship training in partnership with Junior Achievement Philippines; and launching the Forest of the Future initiative with Fostering Education & Environment for Development to protect endemic, indigenous forest trees.
- Singapore: Supporting the Ride and Walk for Rainbows campaign of Club Rainbow (Singapore) to provide nurturing services and intervention programmes to children and youths with chronic illnesses and their families.
- Thailand: Sponsoring seven student scholarships with Pimali Foundation, which supports disadvantaged Thai youths by providing hospitality training to secure their professional future.
- Vietnam: Expanding the JA SparktheDream financial education programme to ensure that significant adults in students’ lives, such as parents and teachers, are also equipped with the financial literacy concepts and skills to support students in their development; and partnering with the Breast Cancer Network Vietnam to donate wigs to economically disadvantaged cancer patients.
The FWD Group Community Care Programme is part of the company’s ESG strategy. Last year, FWD significantly expanded these programmes within areas such as financial literacy. The company’s flagship JA SparktheDream Programme, developed in partnership with Junior Achievement, was successfully piloted in Hong Kong and Singapore in 2022 and was expanded to seven markets across Asia in 2023.
The programme provides students with essential financial literacy skills and promotes engagement with parents and peers to apply these concepts for social good. JA SparktheDream has won multiple awards, including a Silver Award in the 2023 Investor and Financial Education Awards from the Investor and Financial Education Council, a subsidiary of the Securities and Futures Commission, dedicated to improving investor and financial education in Hong Kong. Overall, JA SparktheDream aims to benefit around 25,000 students across eight FWD markets in Asia by the end of 2024.
