Susan Cannarella, a property facultative underwriting assistant at Aspen Re in Rocky Hill, Conn., is the force behind Beads4Dreams, a non-profit organization that creates jewelry that can be sold at craft shows, community events, church fairs and through friends and family. Beads4Dreams buys colorful, hand-painted beads from the Women's Craft Group at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda, and Cannarella uses them to produce beautiful hand-made necklaces, bracelets, earrings and other wearable items.

Through her work, Susan has generated more than $68,000 in sales since 2009; Beads4Dreams donates every penny to the Adara Development, an organization that works hand-in-hand with Kiwoko Hospital to improve the health of women and children in the region. Adara's clinical expertise in maternal infant child health has lifted Kiwoko Hospital to a best practice facility for neonatal intensive care and maternal health.

Kiwoko Hospital, which started out as a small clinic under a tree, is now a thriving regional hospital for the 500,000 people who live in the surrounding Nakaseke district. Nakaseke is home to a very high percentage of people that are living in extreme poverty and have HIV/AIDS. There is an urgent need for funds and supplies to support the hospital and the people in and around this region. Jewelry sales from inspirational Aspen colleagues like Susan go directly to supporting the maternal ward at Kiwoko.

How did Susan get involved? Why are the children of Uganda so near and dear to her heart?

While many companies and people regularly contribute financially without connecting to the work they are supporting, initiatives like Aspen's “Ambassador Program” are aimed at connecting people to the communities and programmes they are contributing to by bringing a number of global Aspen colleagues to Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda every year. At Aspen, philanthropy is a thread that runs from the CEO's office down through the entire fabric of the organization.

In 2007, Aspen partnered with Adara Development (previously known as The ISIS Foundation), an international development organization headquartered in Australia that works with communities and children in remote areas of Nepal and Uganda to improve their lives through health, education, and other development projects.

As part of its partnership with Adara, Aspen launched an ambassadors program in 2008. The program includes flying up to nine colleagues from the company to Uganda every year, usually in August/September, to meet the families who have benefitted from support from Adara and Aspen, to spend time with children that are thriving due to the successful HIV program at Kiwoko Hospital, and to directly engage with healthcare workers at the facility who work with the Adara team to deliver best practice service to patients.

Susan was an ambassador in the inaugural 2008 trip to Uganda, and the trip changed her life forever.

The successful partnership with Adara Development has sparked other initiatives by employees looking to do their part. Brittni Burke, underwriting assistant, U.S. Primary Casualty in New York, holds regular bake sales, with the proceeds donated to Adara Development. Aspen's U.S. offices have “blue jeans” Fridays at the end of each month (with a small financial donation to participate), with proceeds from the HR-led initiative going to Adara. In October 2013, Aspen hosted a fundraising gala in New York generating $163,000 for Adara—and other employees have continued to create unique additional fundraising events and activities.

To date, Aspen employees across the U.S. and the U.K. have contributed more than $710,000 to Adara, and the company has sent more than 50 ambassadors to Uganda. These funds raised by the actions of Aspen employees have gone to purchase food packages for destitute mothers who are caring for their babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, provide emergency medical support for women and children living with HIV, provide caregiver assistance for orphaned kids with HIV, purchase oxygen concentrator machines for infants, and deliver incubators and medical technology to help premature babies survive. Since 2012, Aspen has also supported a community based healthcare program, which takes health services to remote villages. Since this program began, more than 18,000 children have been immunised, protecting them against disease.

Aspen's support of charitable organizations like Adara Development (and their work with Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda) will make a difference for years to come—and Susan's creative beadwork or Brittni's home-made cookies hopefully will inspire others to get involved as well. They've been touched by the personal experience with the families in Uganda and it changed their lives, and that is something they hope will spread to others throughout the company and beyond.

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Aspen&rsquo;s efforts deliver hope, aid to Uganda

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