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Hello, Arlene Sabaris. It’s a pleasure to see you here today. I would like to ask you some questions about your organisation, CoopSeguros.
First question. What were the origins of CoopSeguros?
Well, CoopSeguros was set up as a cooperative in the year 1989.
We have been established for 22 years.
It was set up because at that time these cooperatives needed to insure their lives,
the lives of their members, to insure their properties.
So far we have around 125 member cooperatives, we started with 30 and we’re growing strongly.
We provide protection through general insurance, plus personal insurance and life insurance.
Thank you. Your organisation, CoopSeguros, has been the pioneer in AIDS education in the Dominican Republic for many years.
What lessons have been learned from this project?
Well, first of all, I believe the most important lesson has been the capacity of our cooperatives’ distribution channels
to reach many people and therefore we can make a big difference in our societies.
The AIDS programme was an example that we can reach many people and provide them with information,
we managed this programme very effectively reaching over three hundred and fifty thousand people.
Another thing we have learned from this programme was that
it can be self-supporting over time because initially we started with the support of ICMIF Americas and USAID
with the funds necessary to develop the prevention programme through
discussions and presentations from cooperatives for their members.
Then with the success we achieved from these workshops,
we were able to sign an agreement with a local institution,
with the aim of promoting and continuing to provide workshops and reaching out to even more people.
So the first lesson learned is that we can reach many people to give them the information about insurance
and about all the things we hope to teach them, we can do this effectively through our cooperatives.
The second is that when a project is started with international funds, it can be self-sustaining
via the government, via the cooperatives themselves, via private investment, if it is handled properly.
Thank you. Microinsurance refers to the products available and affordable for people living on less than 2 dollars a day.
Will CoopSeguros implement these products or plans for the near future?
Yes. We are in fact working with new plans and new products that we can bring to our members on a mass scale.
Microinsurance has not yet been explored on the mass market but we have been placing it gradually among the rest of our products here and there.
But on our strategic plan for 2012, it is among our strategies to dedicate special work to place microinsurance through our cooperatives.
It’s going to be a very big step, because we have more than 700,000 members within our cooperatives base,
so we will be able to reach many people through this, and as we encourage people to insure their lives
we will create awareness of insurance and in our 5-year plan we aim to reach this population with a growth of at least 30%.
Last question. What are the challenges and opportunities for your organisation in the future?
Well, first of all, in our country, insurance has a participation of 1.4% of the GDP whereas in most Latin American countries
the average is 2.5% and in countries such as Puerto Rico it can be as high as 14%
this means that very few people use insurance and there is no awareness of insurance in our community.
One of the greatest challenges for us not only as insurance institutions but also
as social economy institutions is currently to be able to promote and inform about insurance to more people.
There are a million cooperative members in our country right now,
distributed among more than 500 cooperatives, and there are only 125 insurance cooperatives at present.
So our greatest challenge is precisely to achieve growth in our existing cooperatives base in the country
to reach these million people and be able to inform them and tell them that insurance is important,
that insurance is a form of saving and that insurance is what protects them in the event of disasters and dangers that come when least expected.
Our country has a high sinister rate and our maximum probable loss is huge because we are under the risk of earthquakes
and under the risk of hurricanes and one cannot always be certain that it will never happen to us.
I think it is up to us as an insurance institution to take this message to people through insurance
giving people information about the importance of insurance and as a social economy institution,
to provide training and education to people and not only to sell them policies but to explain them what they cover,
to explain the importance of insurance and to explain that insurance is
is the only way of guaranteeing (protection for) the effort we make when working to obtain things
Thank you very much Arlene. I would like to thank you very much for your cooperation.
Thank you.