CEBUANA Lhuillier held its third annual Disaster Resilience Forum which seeks to spread more awareness on Filipinos’ role in disaster risk reduction and management and on the role of microinsurance for disaster resilience. The first panel of the forum tackled the roles and responsibilities
of first responders and how training, swift response, and inter-agency coordination leads to effective emergency response services. A second panel tackled the ways of strengthening the resilience of communities against disasters. The closing panel discussed how increased awareness can help make Filipinos resilient against, disasters. The continued discussion on disaster awareness is part of Cebuana Lhuillier’s disaster resilience advocacy. This year, the forum looked into action steps for preparing against disasters. “We are asking the global public to support us. We are looking for others to come in and donate and help,” said PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies President and CEO jean Henri Lhuillier in an interview. OurHelp, a donation website which helps insure Filipinos, was officially launched in the forum. Through OurHelp, they seek to engage people in their disaster resilience advocacy. Their goal is to have 70% of Filipinos insured by 2020.
According to Lhuillier, it is also their goal to increase awareness on benefits o f microinsurance. “[An insurance package] is something that you will benefit from or somebody in your family will benefit from in the long term,” said Lhuillier. He added that the advantage of microinsurance is that it makes insurance affordable and easy to get. Furthermore, they seek to reach far-flung communities and indigenous groups who still do not know about microinsurance. They are also looking into social media platforms to increase awareness on microinsurance.