To promote disaster preparedness and resilience in the country, Malayan Insurance Co. Inc. (Malayan Insurance) has developed an engaging board game called Master of Disaster to enhance Filipinos’ crisis readiness.
Produced in partnership with the non-governmental organization Asia Society for Social Improvement and Sustainable Transformation (ASSIST) which specializes in capacity-building and sustainability, Master of Disaster (MOD) teaches essential emergency planning skills and highlights the role of insurance in times of disaster through gamification. This novel and non-threatening approach allows players to fully absorb emergency resilience principles, objectively assess their personal disaster preparedness, and slowly put what they learned into practice.
The immersive gameboard brings Malayan’s 95th anniversary theme, “Love, Malayan,” to life by inspiring teamwork and purposeful actions that champion proactive disaster preparedness and response.
Targeted mainly towards the youth, MOD aims to equips young minds to prepare for uncertainties by familiarizing them with risk mitigation strategies and by harnessing the financial security provided by insurance.
This fun, interactive board game challenges players to successfully reach the “Safe Cell” with lives or Heart Tokens and Hero tokens, which are earned by helping others. Throughout the game, players encounter disaster scenarios, knowledge challenges, and disaster readiness tests that underscore the importance of preparedness and insurance in recovering from unforeseen emergencies. Each set comes with a playing surface, tokens, and specially-designed Malayan Insurance Disaster, Response, Knowledge and Chance cards.
To ensure efficient roll-out in target schools, ASSIST led the Training of Trainers (ToT) sessions and briefings on MOD with MICO volunteers. The NGO also conducted ToT sessions on both MOD and Insurance Education to teachers from selected schools. These trained teachers, supported by MICO volunteers, will facilitate the initial game sessions with students until they have fully internalized the gameplay and can conduct the sessions on their own.
To track the program’s progress and assess impact, a comprehensive Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) toolkit, pre- and post-student assessments, and focus group discussions will be conducted by Malayan Insurance’s partner NGO.
While the distribution of Master of Disaster is currently limited to identified schools, companies, organizations, academic institutions, as well as Malayan Insurance employees, business partners, and clients can purchase a set for their own use. The board game is an ideal icebreaker from seminars, training sessions, and community events.