GE Allocates $42,000 Grant to Continue Russian Orphanage Transitional Education Program
Moscow, December 21, 2004. The GE Foundation, the philanthropic organization of the General Electric Company, has allocated a second grant in the amount of $42,000 to fund National Training Center in Moscow. The Center teaches orphanage staff in training Russian orphans independent living and social adaptation skills. The first grant in the amount of $28,000 was allocated by the GE Foundation last year to launch the project aimed at re-integrating Russian parentless children into social life upon graduation. This initiative has been implemented by the MiraMed Institute, a Moscow-based U.S. public charity.
According to the MiraMed Institute's program director Robert Aronson, this new GE Foundation grant will be used to provide 25 orphanages with a complete life-skills and social adaptation curriculum and reference materials developed by the Institute over the past five years. The funding allows MiraMed to continue training it began last year for these orphanages and their staff to help more than 1,500 children in Moscow, Moscow Region and St. Petersburg Region re-integrate to society when they leave their orphanages at age 17.
Ron Pollett, GE President in Russia and CIS, stated: "We are extremely happy that the joint effort of the MiraMed Institute and the GE Foundation is bringing children knowledge and skills necessary to feel confident and independent in building their grown-up lives. Today, after the first year of the program implementation, we have all reasons to believe that these skills and knowledge will help the children make their future brighter and happier."
About GE Social Activities:
The GE Foundation, the philanthropic organization of the General Electric Company, marked its 50th anniversary in 2003 and continues its track record of investing in targeted, innovative programs in GE communities around the world. Another GE organization of high social responsibility record is GE Elfun Society, which is a global organization of GE volunteers. For 75 years, it has been uniting GE employees and retirees committed to improving communities, and people's lives through volunteerism, leadership, and camaraderie. One of the GE Elfun's primary goals is to promote education, especially for people in under-served areas. Today, GE Elfun has more than 52,200 members worldwide.
About GE:
GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified technology, media and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, medical imaging, television programming, and plastics, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.ge.com.
About MiraMed Institute:
A federally registered U.S. international public charity founded in 1991. Federally registered non-governmental charitable organization in the Russian Federation. MiraMed has special Consultative Status with ECOSOC Council of the United Nations.
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