CREATE POSITIVE CHANGE FOR PEOPLE’S LIVES

As almost every human being, I love to drive positive change. And when I say “positive change”, I really mean something that has a positive life-changing impact for others. I love when you can help people who are less privileged and have to cope with much harder circumstances than most of us.

I joined Generali Switzerland almost three years ago and it's for me time to reflect of what made me proud. Here are three Generali moments that made me very proud, because my team and I really created meaningful impact.

 Proud moment #3: HEROES AGAINST LONELINESS

In March 2020 when the pandemic hit us all, we had to face a new reality in times of lockdown. People felt isolated and alone – separated from friends, family or even social contact. The rule was “stay at home to flatten the curve”. Within 72 hours, we created an online platform in four languages where everyone who felt lonely could subscribe and was randomly connected with the phone number of someone else who felt the same – no matter their age or gender.

In the following six weeks, more than 5,000 lonely people connected with each other, phone calls were made and maybe even new friendships were built. Even celebrities joined us on our mission and spoke to strangers. And other Generali markets like Germany, Austria and France took on our platform and became heroes against loneliness.

Thanks so much to Sunnie Groeneveld who interviewed me in her Forbes F'15 session "On the Sunnie Side" to this topic.

Proud moment #2: THSN REFUGEE RUNNING TEAM

As we join the global Running movement as well as the Human Safety Net with our own Swiss foundation, we wanted to connect the dots. On the one hand, Generali and our partner Capacity support people with a refugee or migrant background to unlock their potential and discover their entrepreneurial skills. On the other hand, our brand ambassador for Running is Tadesse Abraham, a former refugee himself who became the fastest marathon runner in Switzerland.

Aspiring entrepreneurs and refugees who want to become professional runners have a lot in common: following their own career path, taking on risks and literally staying one step ahead of the competition.

As running helped Tadesse to find his purpose, create a community and integrate into the Swiss culture, we wanted to give other refugees the same opportunity. Therefore, we founded the THSN Refugee Running team to help them to connect with like-minded people, find strengths in sports and have with Tadesse a mentor who helps them to integrate in a new country.

Proud moment #1: SMA KIDS BY GENERALI

Last but not least, my Generali moment that personally touched me the most – our music education program for children: SMA Kids by Generali.

We all know that education is the best insurance that you can have. Music education is not a main subject in our school system – even we know that music like exploring arts have a massive neurological impact on the right side of the brain that is responsible for holistic thinking, intuition, creativity – all abilities that you need in today’s world.

So we created a holistic concept that helps children to discover their music talents and explore the world of music first hand. As partners we collaborated with the Swiss Music Awards (SMA) and a Swiss famous musician, Bligg, who became a mentor for the kids and even produced a song with them.

150 children joined our music workshops and even recorded a song with one of Switzerlands most famous rap artists – something which they as well as their parents will remember for a lifetime. During a film workshop with children, we had even children who shot the music video with their smartphones.

Due to Corona, we had to select some of the best talents and couldn’t be with 150 children together for the big day – a live performance on stage with Bligg at the Award Night of the Zurich Film festival at the Zurich Opera.

The song “Narbe” was released on October 5 and entered as #4 in the Swiss Single Charts. All revenues went to 100% to projects that support children in need. So, the entire project is from kids for kids which makes me really proud. But the best moment was when I heard how this project has already changed the lifes of the children who participated: While some found their love in music and started to learn an instrument or went to sing classes, others earned self esteem and overcame bullying in school or autistic behaviours.

 And now, I am really looking forward for Round 2 with our new mentor Luca H?nni. Applications are still open until end of April, so let's see what will happen next.

I am incredible grateful to have with Generali the opportunity to drive positive change in people’s life.

And there is so much more to come.

Mike Fuhrmann, April 2021