Cigna Foundation Announces Grants to Support Health, Well-Being and Sense of Security For Women and Children Worldwide

BLOOMFIELD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Cigna Foundation today announced $120,000 in grants to the Leaders’
Quest Foundation and to Guiding
Light Orphans to support five Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs)
working to help improve the health, well-being and sense of security for
women and children worldwide.

“Together, these five organizations are bringing health and hope to
communities across the globe and helping to guide and serve some of our
world’s most vulnerable. The Cigna Foundation is proud to stand with
these organizations and help them carry out their vital work,” said
David Figliuzzi, Cigna Foundation executive director.

Leader’s Quest is a global social enterprise that works with leaders
from all sectors who want to create a sustainable, more inclusive world.
“We are honored to receive this extraordinary grant from the Cigna
Foundation in support of our partner organizations who work tirelessly
to improve the health and well-being of underserved individuals in their
communities,” said Lisa Smith, director of development at Leaders’
Quest. The following Leader’s Quest organizations will receive support
from the Cigna Foundation:

The Campaign to Sustain Healthy Childbirths, in Kenya, is led by Jacaranda
Health. It’s creating East Africa’s first sustainable and scalable
maternal health service delivery organization for low-income women. The
model provides comprehensive maternity care at a network of
high-quality, affordable maternity hospitals in peri-urban Nairobi,
close to where women need them. Jacarando Health provides respectful
patient-centered obstetric care, safe delivery, family planning, and
postnatal care.

The Right to Pee campaign, in India, is a grassroots advocacy initiative
led by CORO
India to address the lack of clean, safe and free public urinals for
women in India. Public toilets for women are often dirty, with broken
doors and no running water or lights. Where there are no public toilets,
the search for a suitable place comes with the constant threat of sexual
harassment or rape. Women who lack access to clean, safe sanitation tend
to drink less water and control their bladders for as many as 13 hours a
day. This has significant, long-term effects on their reproductive,
sexual and overall health.

Mumbai
Mobile Creches runs day care centers for children of migrant workers
living on construction sites in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane in the
state of Maharashtra. These children come with their families from
different states of India and live in unsafe surroundings on the
dangerous construction sites. The families have limited access to basic
amenities like water, sanitation and housing. The program focuses on
safety of children on the sites, along with comprehensive support
towards education, nutrition and healthcare needs. The program
disseminates information, builds community relationships, and
communicates with migrant workers living on construction sites. Through
community meetings, the teachers aim to raise awareness about important
social, personal, or community issues and provide relevant information
about best practices and resources to address these issues. Popular
topics include the importance of breastfeeding, vaccinations, parenting
practices, malnutrition in children, and illnesses like nutritional
anaemia and tuberculosis.

Carney’s
Community in the United Kingdom provides a combination of
sports and boxing fitness sessions, combined with long term, consistent
and unconditional support to their local community’s most disadvantaged
groups (with a focus on ex-offenders and people with disabilities). The
charity recently set up a social enterprise which trains up
participants, and then employs them to deliver personal training and
fitness sessions to the public. It also provides emotional well-being
counseling, family mediation and mentoring through one-to-one and family
therapy sessions.

Additionally, the Cigna Foundation provided a grant to Guiding Light
Orphans Guiding
Light Orphans (GLO), an Avon, Connecticut-based charity, to open a
health clinic in a rural village. The Nyantonzi Community Health Clinic
will serve people in rural Uganda who have little access to health care,
and provide a base for GLO’s Village Health Teams. The teams are made up
of specially trained volunteers who reach out to villagers often
ostracized by others because they have epilepsy, AIDS and other
afflictions.

About the Cigna Foundation

The Cigna Foundation, founded in 1962, is a private foundation funded by
contributions from Cigna Corporation (NYSE: CI) and its subsidiaries.
The Cigna Foundation supports organizations sharing its commitment to
enhancing the health of individuals and families, and the well-being of
their communities, with a special focus on those communities where Cigna
employees live and work.

Contacts

Cigna Foundation
Gloria Barone, 215-761-4758
Gloria.barone@cigna.com