The UOB Heartbeat Corporate Social Responsibility Programme connects our customers, our partners and our colleagues across the Group to harness the power of the collective for the benefit of our communities. Through partnership, philanthropy and participation initiatives, the UOB Heartbeat programme demonstrates our long-term commitment to these communities. We focus on three areas which we believe are essential for the quality and progress of society: art, children and education.
The regional and country winners of the 36ᵗʰ UOB POY competition against a backdrop inspired by the winning regional painting from the year before.
Drawing Out Talent Through Art Competitions
With our deep roots in Southeast Asia, we are steadfast in supporting the development of art in the region and our annual UOB Painting of the Year (POY) competition underscores this commitment. Started in 1982, the POY is the longest-running art competition in Singapore and one of the most recognised in Southeast Asia. To nurture and to encourage aspiring and established artists in the region, we hold the competition in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, with the most outstanding artwork chosen for the UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year Award. The recipient of the 2017 award was Mr Sukit Choosri from Thailand for his work, One Life , which depicted the transience of life.
Mr Wee Ee Cheong, UOB Deputy Chairman and CEO, with UOB Southeast Asian POY winner Mr Sukit Choosri from Thailand and Singapore’s Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills) and Second Minister for Defence, Mr Ong Ye Kung.
We also promote artistic talent across the region by raising the profiles of the UOB POY winning artists and by providing them with opportunities to showcase their works. Since 2007, we have been exhibiting collections of their paintings at our UOB Art Gallery at UOB Plaza in Singapore. In 2017, we presented more than 50 artworks of the 15 UOB POY alumni from across the region at Art Stage Singapore, giving them another stage to interact with art collectors and curators. We promoted the works of Indonesian UOB POY artists through an exhibition we organised at Art Jakarta 2017.
Inspiring Art Students to Pursue Their Passion
In Thailand, we conducted roadshows at 26 art universities and colleges nationwide as part of our new Art is All Around campaign. More than 1,600 students had the opportunity to exchange their perspectives on Southeast Asian art with the 2016 UOB Most Promising Artist of the Year (Thailand),
Visitors absorbing the richness of Southeast Asian art at our UOB Art Space at Art Stage Singapore 2017.
More than 400 art students from Nanyang Girls’ High School in conversation with award-winning artists in Singapore.
Enabling Children to Express Themselves Through Art
Since 2015, we have been championing the UOB Please Touch programme in Thailand, an initiative to help people with visual impairment to experience and to enjoy art. In 2017, we partnered an art professor and handicraft experts to train 330 of our colleagues and business partners as volunteers at the UOB Please Touch workshops. Together, they helped to bring art to more than 335 visually-impaired people through a 10-week programme.
Our team in Hong Kong arranged for the organisers of the Art Central fair to take teenage students from less privileged backgrounds on a guided exhibition tour. The visit culminated in an onsite art workshop where an art tutor shared sketching tips with the students. Our colleagues also worked with the Hong Kong Christian Service to organise an outdoor mural painting session for 21 underprivileged children. The completed mural was displayed at Art Central.
Championing Regional Art at the UOB Southeast Asia Gallery
A family’s consuming passion for art at our art bento workshop in Singapore.
Reframing the perception of art at a UOB Please Touch workshop in Thailand.
An uplifting experience for children from our beneficiaries who were on an excursion to the National Gallery Singapore with our UOB volunteers.
Children with art in the palm of their hands at Art Central in Hong Kong.
Through our wide range of art and education outreach programmes, we nurture young minds and encourage their exploration of creativity to help them develop to their full potential.
Reaching out to children and students both inside and outside of the classroom.
Maintaining the Momentum with UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk
Building on the momentum, we expanded this activity across Asia with Malaysia in 2008, Indonesia and Thailand in 2011, China in 2012 and Hong Kong in 2014.
In 2017, more than 14,500 participants raised $1.42 million for their local beneficiaries through the UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk event held simultaneously across the region.
Keeping the good going across the region at our 2017 Heartbeat Run/Walk.
We believe that education gives good grounding and a head start in life to children, especially those from less privileged backgrounds. To help our beneficiaries develop to their full potential, we partner with other organisations to develop programmes and to conduct financial literacy workshops for them.
In 2017, our team in China collaborated with the Yicai Foundation to launch the UOB Brings The World To Me programme for 800 children from primary schools in the remote mountainous areas of Yunnan province. This programme exposes the children to the world beyond their rural community by giving them access to online courses on a range of subjects such as science, culture and basic financial knowledge. To overcome geographic barriers, the students study through live and pre-recorded sessions conducted by volunteer teachers. These sessions are projected onto television screens donated to their schools through the Yicai Foundation. More than 600 volunteers in China, including our colleagues, signed up as volunteer teachers for this programme. Our colleagues also distributed daily necessities and school supplies to the students.
The children at Central Primary School in Pian Ma Yi Minority Village are spurred to put their best foot forward in the new academic year upon receiving gifts of new shoes from the UOB China team.
As part of UOB Malaysia’s effort to educate the younger generation on financial management, the team held Money Wise Street Smart seminars at the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College and at the Monash University Malaysia in 2017. About 700 students attended the seminars. Our Bank was also among 70 financial service providers that participated in Bank Negara Malaysia’s Karnival Kewangan (Financial Carnival). Our people organised a four-hour educational programme to teach children how to spend and to save wisely through interactive board games and scavenger hunts. The team also took 30 children from UOB Heartbeat beneficiary, Dignity for Children Foundation, to participate in the event.
In Indonesia, more than 70 of our colleagues visited the Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Rabbani in Bekasi and ran a fun financial literacy workshop for 70 students between 10 and 12 years old. Through the games, our volunteers taught the children the value of saving and the importance of adopting good investment habits at a young age. They also rolled up their sleeves to repaint the school’s facilities and prepared healthy meals for the students.
As part of our commitment to the long-term development of Myanmar, we partnered the University of Yangon and Yangon University of Economics to introduce the UOB University Scholarship Programme. The three-year programme which started in 2015 aims to nurture a pool of banking and finance talents in Myanmar and the scholars could also apply for internship positions with us to gain first-hand experience in the banking and finance industry. Between 2015 and 2017, a total of 45 students received financial assistance from us to complete their university courses.
Children and university students in Malaysia are learning how to manage their own finances through fun and games.
