Working together to get Spain through a crisis

There’s a Spanish children’s cartoon series called Zoobabu that lets little ones guess which animal is being featured. Probably none of those kids stuck at home during the recent coronavirus lockdown, however, would have identified the creature wandering around in the Spanish city of Murcia a few weeks ago. It was a dinosaur. Or, more correctly, a man dressed in a dinosaur costume. Police posted the video, with the appropriate Jurassic Park theme playing in the background, to show how citizens were trying to bend the rules on staying home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

As Spain, among the countries hardest-hit by the virus, now slowly returns to normal life, its population will need to continue to think creatively. They will need to remain strong and find solutions as families emerge from self-isolation. With the burden now falling on Spain’s government, and especially its small businesses and people to recover, Zurich wants to help however it can, in ways both big and small.

Thinking creatively to mitigate a crisis

One obvious way to help is by contributing to programs that can make a difference to people most vulnerable to Covid-19. Zurich Spain’s social program, ‘Juntos Y Comprometidos’ (Together and Committed), together with the Z Zurich Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by various members of the Zurich Insurance Group, have contributed more than one million euros in aid for programs to help mitigate the impacts of the corona virus crisis.

One of the largest single donations in the Juntos Y Comprometidos program was EUR 350,000 the Z Zurich Foundation provided to the Spanish Red Cross to help 3,000 families in need in The Basque Country, Valencia and Madrid.

“With Z Zurich Foundation’s support, we took on this commitment with the Red Cross because it is able to reach the most vulnerable, and its tireless efforts,” according to Vicente Cancio, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zurich Spain. He calls the work done through the Red Cross’s ‘Responde’ plan to counteract the impact of Covid-19 “one of the most important initiatives that have been developed in Spain during this serious health crisis,” adding that its large network makes it easy for it to provide direct aid to those most affected.

Projects that may even save lives

The Z Zurich Foundation also provided EUR 200,000 split between two projects in Spain working to develop new emergency respirators, which can mean the difference between life and death for patients whose lungs are affected by Covid-19, provided to the Fundació del Clínic (Clinic Foundation) not far from Barcelona; and Andalusia Respira – 'Andalusia Breathes' – a project, submitted by Zurich Spain to the Z Zurich Foundation, that has already developed an industrial prototype respirator that will serve as a guide in the production of respirators that can be used in hospital ICUs.

While the human cost of Covid-19 is truly incalculable, there is also an economic cost that will ripple through people’s lives for years to come. Spain’s children have been out of school since March 13, 2020.

To help families struggling to help their kids keep up at school, working with telecommunications provider Orange in Spain and the Orange Foundation, the Z Zurich Foundation has been able to help support children to attend home-schooling during the lockdown. To provide 1,000 families in Spain with tablets to help their children attend classes remotely, the Z Zurich Foundation donated EUR 150,000. These tablets will be provided along with a further 400 tablets donated by Orange in Spain, which also provided SIM cards to give them free internet access.

Helping small businesses, private customers

Zurich Spain has also been working to help individuals and businesses get back on their feet. For certain small businesses and private customers in Spain, Zurich has offered financial assistance, in some cases allowing customers to delay payments.

And it is also offering cyber analysis of vulnerabilities and solutions during a time of heightened cyber risk, a crucial consideration when even hospitals and medical workers in Spain have been targeted by emails containing a ransom-ware virus disguised as information about Covid-19.

Creating new opportunities in a changed world

Apart from such programs, Zurich Spain is looking to the future. Zurich Spain and Orange in Spain announced earlier this year that they will cooperate in Spain through a new alliance. Together with Orange, Zurich Spain will introduce new ways to serve customers in Spain. The agreement foresees starting to offer some of Zurich Spain’s insurance products to Orange’s some 20 million customers in Spain in the latter half of 2020. The agreement follows similar distribution agreements with other companies, which Zurich Insurance Group has already in place, which have given it access to an additional over 80 million potential customers worldwide since 2016.

A long history of looking to the future

Zurich has been present in Spain since 1884, many years before the world faced another global pandemic in 1918. Zurich has survived over the years by learning and thinking ahead, knowing it is important to focus on the future.

One likely lasting impact of the coronavirus is expected to be an increased demand for digital services. Even before the corona virus hit, Zurich was working to adopt innovative approaches, including in Spain.

“Zurich in Spain began to focus quite early on transforming its offerings to include more digital solutions. We feel proud of what we have achieved – innovations that aim to benefit our customers, while setting some industry milestones,” according to Spain’s CEO Vicente Cancio.

For example, in 2018, Spain introduced Zurich klinc that provides flexible insurance-on-demand for mobile devices, aimed at younger customers. It also launched ZurichEmpresas.es, which allows small and mid-sized enterprises to quickly analyze and understand their specific insurance needs and provides customized products tailored to their businesses.

And in March 2020, Zurich together with A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, launched a digitalized marine cargo insurance product, introduced first in Spain with the intention of expanding it to other countries in the future. It allows customers shipping cargo to purchase insurance online making it easier and faster to insure cargo shipments.

For more information, please visit: https://www.zurich.es/covid19#new