Generali is one of the largest global insurance and asset management providers, present in 50 countries in the world. With 383 employees in Bulgaria, Generali Zastrahovane is one of the leading international insurers in the country. Its operations include Generali Insurance AD (P&C insurance), Generali Zakrila Medical and Dental Centre – an outpatient medical facility, and GP Reinsurance. In 2020, Generali Bulgaria joined its Group in the initiative The Human Safety Net. It aims to support families with young children living in vulnerable conditions, as well as refugees in integrating in the host countries. Today the initiative is active in 24 countries. In Bulgaria - within the for Families program - a partnership is active since 2020 with NGO For Our Children Foundation.
Nikolay Stanchev is Chief Executive Officer and a Chairman of the Management Board of Generali Bulgaria since 2020. He has been a part of Generali Group since 2010 when he joined the team of GP Reinsurance. Later he was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of GP Reinsurance. In 2018 Mr. Stanchev became Executive Assistant to the Regional Officer of Austria and CEE and Head of Strategy for Austria and CEE.
The Human Safety Net was launched in Bulgaria in 2020 with the programme Open the Way to Early Childhood Development in Bulgaria. Tell us a bit more about its main focus, who benefits from it?
Even before the launch of The Human Safety Net in Bulgaria we already got a chance to discover the integrity and the scientific basis of the programmes carried out by For Our Children Foundation. So, it was a natural progression to kick off in Bulgaria as a partnership with the Foundation, focused on supporting families with children under 6 living in vulnerable conditions. Our role is to help the Foundation so it can expand its activities in the country. We are doing this through fundraising, volunteering, and in-kind donation initiatives. The core of the Foundation activities are providing social services to children with developmental difficulties, new-born children at risk of abandonment, families at risk of social exclusion. The services for children include early childhood activities, rehabilitation, kinesitherapy, socialising activities. To parents we promote individual and group training, focusing on building and enhancing their parenting skills.
The Human Safety Net was launched in Bulgaria in a very challenging time, amid the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Did that affect the initiative and its goal, did you make any changes to the programme?
Undoubtedly 2020 was a challenging time for all of us. Bulgaria was the first country in the network, which kicked-off the movement completely online. We were wondering if our employees will welcome the values and the approach behind this movement of people helping people, and how much we will engage them. However, we were surprised by how enthusiastic and ready to participate they were. During the first programme we started, together with the Foundation, we decided to allocate part of our efforts to providing emergency assistance with essential goods to families in need.
Is Generali involving employees in the initiative and how?
We consider all our employees as volunteers of The Human Safety Net. Many of them had been part of different fundraising and volunteering activities, including the Board members, B-level executives, and team leaders. In 2022 more than 200 people took part in at least one activity. Our employees and agents volunteers can join in all the initiatives.
So far, we have created several activities, which turned into a tradition. The Human Safety Net and volunteers organise two charity bazaars, which they create all of the products for – on the 1st of March and on Easter. Every year employees participate in purchasing Christmas gifts: almost 200 children living in vulnerable conditions received presents in 2022 through the initiative. In addition, we participate in a global yearly event called The Human Safety Net Global Challenge. For this campaign, we organise charitable tennis tournaments in Sofia and Plovdiv. In 2022 more than 60 people participated. This year the tournaments will be on the 10th of June in Plovdiv and the 17th of June in Sofia.
What comes next for The Human Safety Net now that you are in its third year?
So far, more than 1,800 children and 2,600 parents have received support through our first program ‘Open the Way to Early Childhood Development’. With the support of the global strategic initiative called Scale Up Impact, The Human Safety Net and For Our Children Foundation are now expanding the scope of its activity nationwide, with our second joint program ‘Holistic support for early child development’. It will allow scaling of it resulting in much more integrated social services to children and dedicated support services for parents in 127 locations in the Sofia and Plovdiv regions. Within the new programme that also includes capacity building and specific support of the NGO members, children living in vulnerable conditions and/or with developmental difficulties will receive access to key services on the spot, not only in the foundation’s centres in Sofia and Plovdiv. It will allow For Our Children to expand their mobile specialised services in many new places. We aim to reach 8,500 children and 7,000 parents between 2022 and 2025.