Prudence Foundation, Unilab join hands in stepping up school-based safety advocacy

Prudence Foundation, the community investment arm in Asia and Africa of Prudential plc, Pru Life UK’s parent company, sealed its partnership with Unilab that will allow the use of the life insurer’s SAFE STEPS Kids audio-visual materials featuring famous cartoon characters in Unilab’s Safe Schools Safe Kids project, more popularly known as 3SK. 

SAFE STEPS Kids was developed by Prudence Foundation, in partnership with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Cartoon Network to raise safety awareness and educate children from a young age with lifesaving skills, by using well-loved cartoon characters to better communicate and disseminate life-saving information to millions of children. The series of videos is based on thematic topics on Natural Disasters, Road Safety, and First Aid. 

During the pandemic, the Health series focusing on Hygiene and Mental Health for children was launched as the topics were deemed critical for children’s holistic development. 

“Prudence Foundation aims to contribute towards a better future by helping our communities be safer and more resilient to life’s risks, by developing and supporting sustainable, long-term initiatives focused on education, health and safety,” says Atty. Ma. Emeren V. Vallente, Senior Vice President & Chief ESG, Legal and Government Relations Officer of Pru Life UK. “We have been working closely with governments, communities, and partners to implement Safe Schools, as well as SAFE STEPS Kids programs to ensure students and teachers have a safe and secure environment for learning.” The foundation’s Safe Schools program in the Philippines has already reached an estimated 20 million students in 47,500 schools.

Meanwhile, the Safe Schools, Safe Kids (3SK) project of Unilab, Inc. was launched last year under its Alaga sa Kalusugan ng Pamayanan (AKAP) Guro program. It implements a holistic approach in providing health care support to schools through free doctor consultations for teachers, training of clinic teachers, and health education among the students and parents to ensure that schools are safe and healthy learning spaces. 3SK coordinates closely with Schools Division Offices (SDO) and City Health Offices (CHO) for proper referral and alignment of health programs.

Recently, Unilab’s 3SK launched a partnership with Jose B. Lingad Memorial General Hospital for the project’s roll-out in San Fernando, Pampanga where a regional hospital participates as one of the key stakeholders, along with the SDO and CHO. It also kicked off its municipal-wide training of clinic teachers with Floridablanca and San Fernando as the pilot sites.

“Finding partners with the same set of values is not easy. It requires a shared vision with an immeasurable commitment to pursue a common goal. We are happy to welcome Prudence Foundation, represented by the highly esteemed team of Pru Life UK, as one of our partner organizations in 3SK,” says Jose Maria A. Ochave, Senior Vice President for External Affairs and Social Partnerships of Unilab.

“Our relationship with Unilab is nothing new. In the past, our organizations have collaborated on elevating our advocacies on health and wellness through customer initiatives and other service offerings in partnership with Unilab. We are grateful for this new partnership with like-minded organizations such as Unilab. And we believe our shared commitment and goal to benefit as many children as possible will achieve a bigger impact towards building a resilient future,” Vallente shared.

With 3SK now leveraging the SAFE STEPS Kids information materials of Prudence Foundation, Unilab is confident of its vision of helping make Philippine schools a lot safer for learners, educators, parents, and other community stakeholders.