"Happiness Goes From Heart To Heart" Chicco Launches Its International Corporate Social Responsibility Project

LANCASTER, Pa., July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Happiness is a feeling that can be given; it can be transferred from heart to heart. It is with this conviction that today, Chicco, a leading brand in the world's BabyCare market and an Artsana Group brand, is launching an international corporate social responsibility project that involves its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, the United States, Argentina and Brazil. It is a long-term charity project called "Happiness Goes from Heart to Heart." Chicco will provide support to the aiutare i bambini Onlus Foundation in order to implement measures aimed at treating childhood heart disease.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130701/NE41182)

Each year, nearly one million children around the world are born with congenital heart malformations. Pediatric heart surgery corrects heart disease in children who would otherwise not live to be even one year old by operating on babies just after they are born. In the West, these are widely practiced operations, and in the majority of cases young patients can lead normal lives after their surgeries. The poorest countries lack doctors and sometimes even hospitals that are adequately equipped to perform such complex operations. This vitally important problem has a solution, and it is with the help of those who have been luckier in life: people whose actions will allow a child in need to be happy.

"Making children happy and giving them something to smile about has always been Chicco's mission. They are values ​​that represent the very essence of all our activities and projects," states Mark Messner, Artsana USA General Manager. "For years we have been developing  corporate social responsibility projects in different countries. Now we are launching a collective project that has an international reach, involving nine subsidiaries of our Group. We are working with the Italian aiutare i bambini Foundation and we have one common goal: to help improve the lives of children who are less fortunate, whose right to life is unfortunately at risk due to congenital heart malformations."

The aiutare i bambini Foundation is a secular, independent, and nonprofit organization that follows the Millennium Development Goals that were created by the United Nations and signed by all UN Member States. For more than thirteen years, the foundation has supported more than one million children by funding more than 1,000 aid projects in 72 countries. Since 2005, 737 children have been saved thanks to pediatric heart surgeries made possible by aiutare i bambini.

"We immediately realized the Foundation had a common understanding and purpose with the Artsana Group," says Goffredo Modena, Founder and President of "aiutare i bambini. "Both our Foundation and the Company, and in particular the Chicco brand, make support and solidarity for children a top priority in our policies. We are so happy to work together and we are confident that our joint efforts will prove to be fruitful, benefiting many children all over the world."

"The Foundation's accomplishments have been notable," says Francesca Catelli, Vice President of Artsana Group. "Chicco is totally committed in order to ensure further improvements so that an increasing number of children will be able to regain their health and start smiling once again."

More information about the project is available on the Chicco website at: http://www.chiccousa.com/heart-to-heart.aspx

About Artsana Group
The Artsana Group, founded in 1946 by Cavaliere del Lavoro Pietro Catelli, posted an aggregate turnover of 1.445 billion Euros in 2011, divided between its two business areas: Baby (80%) and Health & Beauty Care (20%). Established as a family-run company, over the years the Group has become a multinational structure. Today it is present around the world with more than 7000 employees, 8 European production plants and 25 branches, 17 of which in Europe, and relies on a network of dealers and distributors in over 100 countries. The main brands of the Group, which is headquartered in Grandate (Como), are Chicco, Prenatal and Boppy in the Baby Care area, and Pic Solution, Lycia and Control in the Health & Beauty Care area.

About aiutare i bambini Foundation
aiutare i bambini is an Italian Foundation that was established in 2000 with the objective of offering practical help to children who are poor, ill, or lack education, as well as children who have suffered physical and psychological abuse. The Foundation is non-profit, and recognized by the law. It operates in Italy as well as around the world with hospitality, healthcare, emergency, education and child sponsorship projects. In the thirteen years it has operated, aiutare i bambini has supported more than 1 million children by funding 1,034 aid projects in 72 countries. The financial statements of the Foundation are public and certified.
Headquarters: via Ronchi 17, 20134 Milan, Italy. Tel. +39 02 2100241, [email protected], www.aiutareibambini.it.  

SOURCE Chicco USA