Charitable Work

Cytoplan is wholly owned by a charitable foundation and throughout the year we look to do as much as we possibly can to raise money for different causes whether it be on home soil or globally. Below you can find out more about some of the annual charitable activities of Cytoplan including a summary of some of the charitable work of the Nutrition and Wellbeing Foundation (NWF), the 100% shareholders of Cytoplan.

Nutrition and Wellbeing Foundation

The charitable foundation that owns Cytoplan is the Nutrition and Wellbeing Foundation (NWF) and we are a product of their ideology. Their current focus areas are increasing the understanding of nutrition and its importance for health amongst health practitioners, and reducing childhood obesity. Malnutrition problems are on the rise in the UK making nutritional education more essential than ever.

What we fund with NWF

provides core, unrestricted and project funding to organisations with charitable purposes, including:

Changing the system

Intervening at the level of the system, as change here can reach a larger number of people and make a lasting impact. This includes supporting work that changes policy, structures, mindsets and practice including raising the voices of those under-represented, collaborations, awareness raising, advocacy, testing and spreading ways of working, and research.

Strengthening the sector

By supporting infrastructure bodies that work to support and develop a sector. This includes supporting the professional development of practitioners, funding collaborative working, developing best practice and sharing learning.

Direct support

Recognising that people are struggling here and now. NWF might support the direct work of organisations to improve access to quality food options, including free school meals, in lower income neighbourhoods.

Research

The Trustees will ensure that any research funded is charitable justified and undertaken for the public benefit and not solely or mainly for self-interest or for private or commercial consumption. Results will be disseminated to the public and others able to utilise or benefit from it.

Cytoplan’s Charitable work

Nepal Disaster

As you are all undoubtedly aware, on the 25th April 2015 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal killing around 8,000 people and devastating the lives of countless more. The BBC reported that on top of these harrowing statistics, nearly 5,000 schools were destroyed leaving an estimated 1 million children unable to return to education.

Last year one of our main charitable goals was to raise £7000 to help rebuild one of the schools destroyed by this devastating earthquake. Here at Cytoplan we held a sponsored run from our offices to the top of the Worcestershire beacon, cake sales, car boot sales and various other fundraising activities to help raise as much money as we could towards this cause.

Life for African Mothers

Life for African Mothers is a Maternal Health charity aiming to make birth safer in Sub Saharan Africa, by providing medication to treat eclampsia and post-partum haemorrhage. By providing medication to treat the complications of child birth, Life for African Mothers have been able to support hospitals and health centres across Africa and see huge reductions in maternal mortality.

Last year we donated folic acid supplements to the wonderful charity and these were sent to Cameroon, on the Gulf of Guinea in Central Africa. From June 2015 LFAM have started to supply health centres in Cameroon with Misoprostol. LFAM now also help to supply and distribute vitamins, essential in the development of healthy pregnant women and their babies.

Operation Christmas Child

As we do every year – Cytoplan took part in the ‘operation Christmas child’ which is a cause providing children from less fortunate countries around the world with shoeboxes filled with toys, hygiene items and school supplies.

Local charitable work

All year round, the office also endeavours to participate in many other fundraising activities for wonderful causes, including Red Nose Day, wear pink for breast cancer, a coffee morning for Macmillan, a day for Children in Need and other bake sales and car boot sales, then most recently we cycled the length of the River Severn on exercise bikes for Sport Relief.

A big Thank You

Every customer who purchases our products, whether it be once, twice or ten times a year, is helping us to try and help those who are much less fortunate than ourselves. You may not realise it, but every time you buy from us, you are potentially helping someone else. We believe this is a sound business model: one that we are very proud of and one that hopefully, in time, will achieve the goals we have set ourselves, to improve the health of the nation and the rest of the world too! Our charitable work – both on a small and large scale – is testament to this.

We hope that this information has given you a small insight into the charitable structure of Cytoplan and the significant role it plays in the day to day running of the company.