# Community engagement and investment / continued

Charitable donations by region\* %

Charitable donations by area of focus %

Due to the broad nature of our community work, some of our projects span diferent focus areas, in which case classification is made according to the activity’s primary purpose. For instance, our community resilience projects may sit within social/welfare, education or health. The reduction in our overall spend was largely attributed to having more one-of donations in response to the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Exceptional activities undertaken in 2020 included our donations to The China Research Development Foundation and a number of Covid-19 relief projects.

Prudential colleagues and agents also contributed around 26,000 hours of volunteer service in their local communities in 2021.

# Covid-19 Relief Fund

In 2020, the Group created a US\$2.5 million Covid-19 Relief Fund, which was administered by Prudence Foundation, Prudential’s community investment arm in Asia and Africa. The fund was distributed to Prudential’s businesses globally, supporting approved charitable and community projects that addressed the immediate social and economic impacts of the pandemic.

In 2021, a new US\$2 million fund was launched to continue to support communities still struggling with the pandemic. Local businesses’ programmes have focused on supporting vulnerable communities on eforts that include Covid-19 messaging, hygiene and sanitation, nutrition and educational programmes. These include:

> Prudential Laos’ support for the Laos Red Cross in providing schools with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment as children return to school.

> Two projects in Uganda, with one providing food to teachers in vulnerable communities whose livelihoods have been afected by prolonged school closures due to the pandemic. The second project focuses on providing mental health services to those sufering from the impacts of Covid-19, as well as raising awareness on the issue.

In addition to the Covid-19 Relief Fund, Prudence Foundation also launched a SAFE STEPS Kids ‘Be Cool Be Clean’ campaign with Cartoon Network. This campaign includes video and activity materials that teach children the importance of good hygiene. The content is distributed across all Cartoon Network platforms as well as our key SAFE STEPS Kids partnerships, such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and various National Red Cross Societies.

# Health

In the area of health inclusion, Prudence Foundation has been supporting early childhood care and development since 2013. In 2020, we established a new partnership with UNICEF to implement a regional early childhood development (ECD) programme that advances ECD as part of the Nurturing Care Framework. The goal is to raise awareness and provide essential knowledge and skills to parents and caregivers around holistic nurturing care for children aged from up to three years old. In 2021, the programme saw a successful pilot in Indonesia, where it reached 30,000 parents and 60,000 children aged under five. In addition, with funding support from Prudence Foundation, UNICEF has completed country rapid assessment on Nurturing Care ECD services in four countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. The findings will help inform a larger initiative for developing country-specific ECD strategy and programming approach in the near future.

# Virtual Mapathon

Each year, disasters around the world kill nearly 100,000 people and afect as many as 200 million people, and millions more die of preventable diseases. Many of the places where these incidents occur are ‘missing’ from open and accessible maps, resulting in a lack of reach for humanitarian organisations.

Since 2014, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has been supporting the Ministry of Health in Nigeria to fight Noma, a low-profile disease that mostly afects children under five living in poverty.

In October 2021, Prudence Foundation, in partnership with MSF, organised two Missing Map Mapathon sessions, where PRU Volunteers helped to put the missing places and populations in Sabon Birni and Illela of Nigeria on the digital map. The efort will help MSF get to the patients more quickly, track diseases more efectively and better understand where the needs of the people are the greatest during an emergency.

A total of 174 PRU Volunteers from 20 locations across Asia, Africa and the UK participated in the Mapathon events, mapping out over 7,000 buildings in Sabon Birni and Illela. With physical volunteering becoming more challenging, this virtual volunteering event provided a meaningful opportunity for our employees to connect with one another in a good cause. We are hopeful that our contribution will make a significant impact in enabling timely prevention and treatment of the disease. We will consider holding the activity again in 2022, given the positive response received.

In conjunction with the Mapathon, Prudence Foundation has also made a donation of US\$45,000 (HKD 350,000) to fund MSF activities in providing healthcare to the people in need.

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\* Within the scope of EY assurance – see page 12.