Improving health and nutrition

In Italy, the organisation is fighting against (educational) poverty, while encouraging social inclusion. It is also active in Africa – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and the Republic of Guinea – where it helps to combat child malnutrition by empowering women, promoting food security, and providing of high-nutrient food flours that offer preventive and therapeutic value.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation supported the project Debo Bamtare – Women at the heart of food security.

The project aims to improve food security in the territories of Aram and Kenene in Senegal, increase access to agricultural activities and fertile land for inhabitants, and raise the skills and knowledge of the local population about good nutrition practices. It also works to improve the socio-economic conditions of the villages through new economic activities related to the agricultural production of a women's agricultural Economic Interest Groups (EIG).

The project will allow:

• 800+ children aged between 0 and 5 years old to access more nutritious food;
• 250 women to be members of the agricultural EIG;
• 100 participants to take part in training courses on agricultural and avicultural techniques;
• 300 people to participate in community education sessions;
• 75 participants to receive training on management tools.

DC's work spans four domains: youth empowerment, education and skills training, healthcare, gender equality and diversity and inclusivity, all of which are united by sustainable development goals.

In 2024-2025, the Eurofins Foundation is providing financial support to the Sampushti Project, a comprehensive nutrition initiative for children aged 5-10 years. 

According to Global Hunger Index 2023, India has the highest proportion of wasted (underweight) children in the world, at 18.7%, reflecting acute undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies.  Addressing these issues is crucial for ensuring the healthy growth and development of children in India.  DC currently runs a comprehensive nutrition care initiative, Sampushti (derived from Sanskrit word meaning ‘wholesome’), to cater to the nutritional needs of children.

Almost all the nutrition initiatives in the region currently focus on two age groups: 6 months-5 years old and 10-19 years old. However, there is a gap in the efforts directed towards the nutritional needs of the children in the age group of 5-10, a time when quality nutrition is crucial for the body’s growth and development.  DC aims to fill this gap with tailored nutrition and community-wide improvements. Benefits encompass education continuity, preventive healthcare, long-term health alleviation, and public health advancement.

Their aim is to positively impact the health and wellbeing of prisoners by delivering practical food-based education, promoting healthy eating, and supporting catering teams in serving better quality food.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundations is supporting Food Behind Bars in their ambition to inspire change in prison kitchens.

Food Behind Bars will develop a four-month Prison Food Education Programme, involving practical and digital modules, as well as membership to a community network for ongoing support. The programme is for prison catering teams – both staff and prisoners – and is designed to upskill, inspire and educate.

It will enable prison catering teams to develop healthier recipes, produce homemade bread instead of processed loaves, gain a deeper understanding of nutrition, and learn how to foster a positive kitchen culture. They will become part of a network of prison catering managers, food educators, academics, nutritionists and chefs who will support their journey to healthier food and healthier prisons.

Some of the expected outcomes of this programme are:

• Prisoners have access to freshly prepared and nutritious food and are more self-sufficient and sustainable.
• Prisoners and staff are educated in the benefits of eating well.
• Prisoners’ mental and physical health is improved.
• Evidence is produced demonstrating the economic, social and health benefits of better food in prison.

Gardens for Health International (GHI) believes in changing systems, not treating symptoms. Their programme revolves around the idea that integrating agriculture and nutrition into the existing health system is essential to ending malnutrition. To tackle the root causes of malnutrition, they equip families with seeds, skills, and knowledge to create vegetable gardens, prepare balanced meals, and keep their children healthy.

Over the past decade, over 19,448 families have graduated from the programme and improved the lives of themselves and their families. Their work has been adopted at a national level and by like-minded organisations across the country.

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation supported Gardens for Health International, whose objective is to improve vulnerable families' access to nutritious food and build resilience, especially in the current health and climate situation. 

25% of women of reproductive age are anaemic and about 44% attend prenatal care visits, when pregnant. The project targets pregnant mothers to address these risk factors and also educate them on their nutrition needs during pregnancy. During the course of 14 weeks, mothers and their partners are empowered with knowledge, skills, and resources about healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and post-natal care. Gardens for Health International also also connect women to health clinics for prenatal care services and clinical assistance. The Eurofins Foundation's support enabled Garden to Health International to provide access to nutritious food for 278 families. These families were equipped with the knowledge, seeds, and livestock that they need to meet their nutritional needs sustainably. This support also galvanised GHI footprint of support in the area, leading to buy-in and meaningful collaboration with the local government, and the community.

They also noticed significant changes in pregnant women, including:

• Minimum dietary diversity threshold increased from 21% to 70%;
• Iron-rich food consumption increased from 47% to 70%;
• Vitamin A-rich food consumption increased from 74% to 96%;
• Animal-source protein intake increased from 22% to 68%;
• Alcohol consumption decreased from 21% to 6%;
• Drinking water purification practice increased from 70.7% to 93.3%;
• Non-food consumption decreased from 8% to 0%.
  • Non-food is categorised in this instance as soil, mud, termite hill, and other mud-made products. Some pregnant women tend to have a strong desire to consume such items due to a lack of essential micronutrients – this practice is harmful and can negatively affect both the baby and the mother.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support for Gardens for Health International, which works to support underprivileged communities to deal with climate change related incidents.

Rwanda has experienced severe impacts of climate change since the beginning of 2023, ranging from landslides, floods, destruction of property, and sadly, the loss of life. These events have exacerbated pre-existing in food and health inequity and have increased the risk of food and nutrition insecurity.

The Eurofins Foundation’s grant has contributed to the following Gardens for Health International activity:

• Two enrollment sessions coinciding with agricultural seasons in Rwanda. During these sessions, Gardens for Health International partnered with families most vulnerable to malnutrition and trained them to develop home gardens that will provide a consistent supply of nutritious vegetables. Gardens for Health International also provided these families with organic starter seeds and seedlings to plant a range of fruits, legumes, leafy greens, and other vegetables to foster lasting healthy eating habits.
• GHI trained mothers and their partners on creative ways to prepare balanced meals for their families using the One-Pot One-Hour cooking model. Participants learned how to cook quick healthy meals using limited resources from their gardens.
• Malnutrition is complex and affected by many factors. With that in mind, GHI , on an ongoing basis, teaches families to incorporate healthy habits into their day-to-day lives. They also train mothers and their partners on water purification and practical ways to identify and mitigate against hygiene-related illnesses.

In addition to working with families, GHI established demonstration gardens in eight of their health centres throughout the Gasabo and Burera Districts. The demonstration gardens serve as learning sites for the wider community to study and then replicate gardening practices at home. The harvests from the gardens are also distributed to families identified as at-risk of malnutrition.

In 2024/2025, the Eurofins Foundation renews its support to Gardens for Health International.

The Hunger Project (THP) is active in 23 countries throughout the world, with its global headquarters in New York.

In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation supported The Hunger Project in Mexico to implement a comprehensive, bottom-up, women-centred strategy for sustainable development in Oaxaca, the poorest state in Mexico, and thus reach indigenous and rural people who are often excluded from most development processes.

This programme focuses on training and empowering local volunteer leaders, particularly women, to advocate for themselves and the resources they need based on their own assessments and goals for their community. These leaders then oversee the development of their villages, including access to clean water and sanitation, launching community gardens and nutrition training programmes, rediscovering indigenous crops for healthy and diverse diets, creating income-generation activities, and upholding the rights of women and children.

The grant has helped THP create healthier communities equipped with the necessary tools, knowledge, and resources, directly impacting a total of 743 people.

THP also supported the installation of 101 new rainwater harvesting systems, which directly impacted 565 people, almost half of whom were women. An additional 11 new systems are scheduled to be installed in the near future.

Communities are taking the lead and building long-term plans. Committees, alongside water promoters (women and men with the necessary expertise), are coordinating to prioritise the installation of water systems in additional communities. Their work will include creating a process to share water with multiple households within the community.

Local people are leading this continued work. Ultimately, the project’s self-ownership is leading to a mindset change that goes far beyond the direct impact of the work carried out by the project.

In 2021/2022, Eurofins Foundation’ support offered THP-Mexico’s indigenous partners intensive in-person and e-training in leadership skills and digital literacy – assisting them in reaching key objectives toward their economic autonomy.

In Oaxaca, 112 indigenous women entrepreneurs gained skill in using their smartphones to photograph artisanal crafts and native food products, using social media channels for product sales, using email to leverage their social networks.

In Chiapas, 30 Tseltal women from the Aguacatenango community began creating their collective vision as artisans – a process that will eventually allow them to generate their own income. 149 women also started forming savings groups.

Also in Chiapas, 119 Tzotzil women from two cooperatives strengthened the commercialization of their products. They have started reflecting on participatory monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) and its usefulness in relation to tracking their cooperatives’ operations and revenue.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to this initiative.

The project had a significant local impact on promoting inclusive economies and the economic autonomy of rural and indigenous women. This was achieved through social enterprises and small-scale producers, and through the principles of feminist, social and solidarity economics. These principles are designed to address hunger, extreme poverty, and climate change. The aim is to share learnings between culturally and geographically distinct regions to promote inclusive and resilient local economies led by rural and indigenous women.

Building on prior Eurofins investments – in which groups were established through invitation –THP-Mexico expanded the capacities of 196 indigenous female entrepreneurs (ages 18 to 60+) across 20 municipalities. THP trained the indigenous women entrepreneurs in transformative leadership, entrepreneurial mindset, feminist economy, and commercialisation of indigenous products,  accompanying them in the development of their social enterprises.

The primary products these women entrepreneurs produce are handmade/hand-dyed/ hand woven textiles. Part of the product development made possible by the project was expanding know-how for dying thread using natural pigments. The wares the women create using these threads include blouses, shirts, skirts, bags, napkins, and tablecloths.

THP-Mexico also facilitated an intercultural, cross-pollination exchange amongst indigenous women leaders from Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Yucatan. Together, women identified the collection of water as a key barrier to their economic and civic participation and began the process of planning and managing water together with their communities. The indirect beneficiaries of this project include the entrepreneurs’ approximately 784 family members.

In 2024/2025, the Eurofins Foundation is providing funding to the initiative “Improving Food Security through Community Savings, Microfinance, and Water Justice in Indigenous Regions of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Yucatán.” 

Through a gender-focused, community-led process, THP-Mexico will partner with 186 trained women Catalysts in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Yucatán, helping them to improve their own food security and offering them access to water and microfinance. THP-Mexico will focus on capacity building to improve agricultural productivity and therefore, household income. They will also ensure their access to financial services, such as savings and micro-loans, and access to water for household and agricultural use through a rainwater harvesting system. Through this holistic approach, 78 Catalysts in Chiapas, 41 in Oaxaca, and 67 in Yucatán will achieve financial independence, further affecting approximately 700 members of these women’s families. 

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is supporting an Acted project in the Philippines, “Strengthen children's health in day-care centres and schools through water, sanitation and hygiene support and strengthen health of vulnerable populations through access to sustainable food respectful of the environment”.

Surigao del Norte is one of the 22 most at-risk provinces in terms of climate change in the Philippines. Out of its 20 municipalities, 17 municipalities have insufficient water, hygiene and sanitation. In Surigao City, there are 20 schools without proper toilets, handwashing facilities or running water.

Through this project, Acted is reinforcing UNICEF’s work in the region by supporting the beneficiaries from the same 10 schools and five day care centres with additional activities in school to allow access to sanitation facilities and to encourage better practices, ultimately leading to better health within these communities.

In addition, Acted will strengthen access to nutritious food and reduce food insecurity for students in 10 schools and 50 women from indigenous communities. As women are among the most discriminated and have more limited access to basic services, Acted will provide gardening tools and seedlings to 50 women and facilitate training courses from the municipal agricultural officer. The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture states that gardening schools improve quality of life and nutrition.

Aniké conducts three main activities: in collaboration with local partners, they provide care for abandoned children, provide medical assistance to women during pregnancy and childbirth, and fight against female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that unfortunately is still widespread in Guinea.

In 2024-2025, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to Aniké’s health post for women and children in Djirlain, a village located in the Kankan region or Guinea. Due to its rural setting, Djirlain faces specific challenges in terms of infrastructure, access to health and education services, and other essential needs, which leads to higher infant and maternal mortality and morbidity. The creation of a health post in Djirlain is part of a proactive approach aimed at reducing inequalities in access to health care and strengthening the general wellbeing of the local population, especially children and women, by making it possible to ensure quality preventive and basic curative care, as well as the possibility of safe childbirth.

Currently, there is no treatment available that can effectively slow down the progression of ALS. This lack of effective treatment is due, in part, to a crucial delay of 12-20 months in diagnosing ALS. This long delay prevents treatment from starting early in the course of the disease when there is still an opportunity to tackle the mechanisms underlying the progressive loss of motor neurons and slow them down.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to a research project with the objective of developing a tool for early diagnosis based on cutting-edge corticospinal functional neuroimaging. It will apply corticospinal resting-state (RS) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to measure spatial and dynamic changes in connectivity in the corticospinal tract. Results obtained here will allow researchers to confirm corticospinal alterations early in the disease course and establish such alterations as a marker for disease diagnosis.

As an association that advocates for the well-being of ALS patients, ARSLA believes that this project has the potential to create an important impact on the lives of patients in the early stages of the disease, facilitating their diagnosis and increasing the chances of available treatment that has beneficial effects.

Its programmes focus on providing access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH); ensuring food security through agro-ecological methods; and improving access to renewable energy forms, among others. blueEnergy collaborates and works directly with the beneficiary communities and populations, helping to leverage gender equality, adapt to climate change, building capacities, and raise awareness. Their projects have improved living conditions of 90,000 people.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the project “Improving Access to Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Building Climate Resilience in the Southern Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua”.

The project aims to improve access to water, sanitation, and hygiene in rural (Villa Nueva) and periurban (Punta Masaya) communities of Bluefields through an integrated approach, working with families, schools, communities, and authorities. It includes:

• Installing water supply, sanitation and hygiene infrastructures;
• Training family and school staff in good hygiene and water resource conservation practices;
• Improving water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure in two schools;
• Strengthening technical and organisational capacities in the community, with a gender focus;
• Promoting efficient water management, climate resilience and ecosystem restoration through awareness building and community-based.

Informal carers are individuals of any age who care for or nurse a relative, friend or partner requiring help due to physical or mental ill health, disability, or other causes. Challenges carers face include inadequate access to public services, limited support, poor awareness of their rights, and inequitable healthcare provisions.

Caring can also significantly impact physical, mental, financial, and social wellbeing. In Bangladesh, fewer resources lead to inadequate social support, poor access to public services, and often a reduced chance to earn. Carers Worldwide’s research in Bangladesh found that 84% of carers experience physical health concerns and 65% do not have either time or money to seek treatment. 79% experience depression.

As part of a current, three-year programme in partnership with local NGO, the Centre for Disability in Development, Carers Worldwide is working with over 1,000 carers on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to address social isolation, poor health, and poverty.

Through this work they have identified some pressing health needs experienced by carers and those they care for which they aim to address, including vision/hearing assessments, gynaecological assessmenta, provision of assistive devices/therapy equipment, and education on nutrition and mental health.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to this project, which will enable carers and their disabled relatives around Dhaka to access additional healthcare close to their homes and provide assistive equipment. This will result in better health outcomes for carers and cared-for individuals, such as improved eyesight, better nutrition, and increased mobility.

Supporting more than 100 organisations in 52 countries, Coalition PLUS focuses on a range of critical areas, including community testing, strengthening sexual health services, harm reduction, local research, advocacy, and capacity building.

It firmly believes in the importance of recognising and empowering people living with HIV, as well as those affected and vulnerable to the virus, emphasising the importance of involving communities in decision-making, programme development, and implementation. Coalition PLUS takes a community-based approach that enhances self-care and fosters collective action.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the project “Strengthening and deploying proctology care services, in Morocco, Mali, Burundi, Mauritius”.

This project aims to develop community-based management services for anal and vaginal pathologies. Four member associations in four countries (Burundi, Mali, Mauritius, and Morocco), which each run health centres, are taking part in this project.

People living with HIV are at major risk of developing anal pathologies and face a lack of health responses to these specific problems. The highly taboo nature of anal pathologies makes it particularly difficult for some people to seek treatment, meaning diagnoses are usually made at an advanced stage of the pathology, increasing the risk of cancer. Coalition PLUS seeks to develop community-based management of these pathologies in the health centres of its member associations by implementing training for doctors and acquiring specific medical equipment for proctological management.

In 2020/2021, the Eurofins Foundation supported the Save One Million Lives project.

DTI has been collaborating with various Indian regions for the past few years, involving Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and public and private hospitals to develop deceased organ donation programmes in the country.

To do so, the DTI Foundation implemented the SEUSA programme to transfer knowledge of the best practices in organ donation to Indian healthcare professionals. In 2021, and thanks to the Eurofins Foundation, they successfully held a Pan-Indian training programme.

85 Healthcare professionals from five different Indian regions (Kerala, Telangana, Goa, Bangalore, and Kolkata) participated in the five-week educational programme. The training consisted of a Self-Study online course in Organ Donation, a one-day workshop on deceased organ donation, and five scholarships for the second edition of the International Workshop on the Family Approach for Organ Donation.

The self-study online course in Organ Donation included developing flexible and interactive learning activities and promoting the continuous building of knowledge and development of skills. The contents included deceased donation (after brain death) and living donation.

The students then attended a one-day live-streamed workshop in deceased organ donation to improve their skills in the field through practical stimulation.

The International Workshop on the Family Approach for Organ Donation was held online in November 2021. The communication skills required for effective and difficult conversations with patient relatives was even more essential during to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

These conversations are best conducted when the staff are trained and able to establish a positive relationship with the family. These concepts are the foundation of this course.

After the training, DTI experts followed up by implementing the new knowledge and skills learned in their hospitals.

Thanks to this project, Kerala state, one of the participating regions, is developing legislation to establish the need to have key donation persons (Transplant Procurement Managers-TPM) in the main public and private hospitals. These TPMs will lead the organ donation for transplant programmes.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to DTI through the project Let Transplants Grow in Asia.

The grant helped with training the healthcare professionals who are involved in deceased donation and transplantation. It also gave DTI the opportunity to review the current situation regarding donation and transplantation at the AIIMS centre located in New Delhi.

The project contributed to showing the decision-makers the great potentiality of the country regarding donation and transplantation because of India's high brain death rates which could be converted as organ donors enhancing the transplantation in the country.

The Eurofins Foundation provides a new grant to DTI for the period 2023/2025, helping the organisation with the programme Mabuhay-Donor: Enhancing Deceased Organ Donation in the Philippines with the main objective to improve deceased organ donation rates in the Philippines by enhancing the hospital's organisational structure. Specifically, DTI aims to empower Organ Donor Coordinators to identify potential donors efficiently and effectively oversee the organ donation process.

Decades of neglect and deep-rooted inequalities have left remote areas of the country with chronic poverty, food insecurity, and limited access to essential services such as drinking water, education, and healthcare. Climate change further exacerbates these challenges, due to frequent droughts, floods, and crop failures, which disproportionately affecting marginalised, indigenous women and girls.

dZi collaborates with local governments, community groups, and multi-stakeholder partners to ensure access to basic needs, catalyse inclusive economic growth, and create an environment for lasting change. Key interventions include promoting citizen participation in local development, increasing access to basic needs, strengthening local government capacity, co-funding poverty eradication initiatives.

In 2024-2025, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the “The Muyong Drinking Water Supply Project.”

The Muyong Drinking Water Supply Project (MDWSP) is designed to provide safe and reliable drinking water to more than 165 households in Bung, Nepal. Despite efforts since 2010 to enhance community infrastructure, community members must travel 3km to fetch water from the Muyong River, a responsibility that often falls on the women and girls of the household. The time-consuming journey exposes them to risks, especially during the monsoon season when erosion and water contamination are heightened.

The MDWSP aims to significantly improve sanitation, combat waterborne diseases, and relieve women and children from the burdensome task of water collection by providing local access to clean water through the construction of a water supply system. This will also support the establishment of kitchen gardens, boosting nutrition and food security for vulnerable communities. Beyond providing water, this project empowers communities and enhances their quality of life.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation supports the project Percurso Cidadão: Gerando Saúde in Brazil.

By merging popular education and health education, the project aims to support 300 vulnerable adolescents (50% girls) to become health advocates for their health and their community, through a 9-month program, Percurso Cidadão. It takes place in Patos and Campina Grande, located in the Paraíba State, known to have the second highest poverty incidence in Brazil (IBGE, 2022).

While coverage of health services in Brazil has improved, the realisation of the right to health among underprivileged Brazilian youth, especially girls, is far from being achieved. A study in Patos reveals that only 7 teenagers out of 201 surveyed consult for STD prevention and early pregnancy.

Those health inequalities rely mostly on exposure to risks and access to healthcare. Besides, public health policies aimed at youth are built without the involvement of those targeted, leading to little effective participation. COVID-19 has particularly affected the wellbeing of Brazilian youth (mental, sexual and reproductive health, risky behaviors and gender violence).

The programme intends to respond to these challenges by promoting awareness and youth leadership through popular education, to create a shift over healthcare management at the community-level. The project will also strenghten “global health ambassadors” in partnerships with local actors.

Families are provided with the opportunity to attend a variety of local activities, trips and learning opportunities. In doing so, Families United Warrington aims to increase the health, wellbeing and social opportunities for their beneficiaries, who are often marginalised by society. They unite families so that they find support in each other through shared experiences and an understanding of the impact that having a child with special educational need (SEND) can have on family life.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is supporting the project “SportsWorks” with weekly sport sessions to promote health and fitness in children and young adults who are disabled/have special educational needs.

Families with disabled children often feel unable to access local leisure facilities due to the reaction of the public or lack the knowledge on how to engage their child in sporting activities. This project aims to overcome these difficulties, thus improving the physical and mental health of families with disabled children so that they feel more able to face the daily stresses and pressures of their caring role and reduce social isolation.

Fistula Foundation has partnered with 70+ local surgical teams, hospitals, and organisations in 33 countries across Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia to provide 75,000+ women with free, holistic fistula treatment.

They are committed to helping women in the short term by providing as many cost-free surgeries as possible, and in the long term, through their evidence-based Fistula Foundation Treatment Networks (FFTNs) that increase access to timely, quality treatment and comprehensive post-operative care across a country.

With access to care in more places, women with fistula no longer wait for years to undergo surgery and are less likely to travel long distances to receive high-quality treatment.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation contributed to the Lomami Province Fistula Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Childbirth injuries are a major gender issue, and obstetric fistula causes significant issues for women. Suffering from obstetric fistula causes chronic pain and health issues, and is significantly debilitating. Successful fistula repair surgery is a life-changing treatment for some of the world's most vulnerable women, restoring their health and wellbeing, and massively improving their quality of life. Supporting women with obstetric fistula by restoring their continence helps them re-enter their communities, develop skills to bring income into their homes, and potentially choose to have children again.

Women with obstetric fistula are predominantly young and living in extreme poverty in rural areas. The Lomami Province Fistula Project addresses these challenges by funding access to health services (transportation, surgeries etc.) while ensuring all fistula treatment is free.

In the first half of 2024 alone, the Eurofins Foundation's funds allowed Panzi hospital, in the Lomani Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to provide free surgeries to 115 women to repair fistula and severe perineal tears, with a 96% success rate, restoring the health of 110 women. Additionally, 5 nurses and 50 community members were trained in healthcare services, a public information campaign on the topic reached 2000 people, and a radio campaign spread awareness about fistula symptoms to over 300,000 people in the local community, about 10% of Lomami's population.

In 2024/2025, the Eurofins Foundation renews its contribution to this project.

HAMAP-Humanitaire focuses on strengthening their local partners’ organisation and skills to implement effective actions with long-term positive impact. They are also committed to promoting gender equality, access to education, minorities’ protection, and environmental preservation. 

Today, more than two billion people worldwide do not have access to drinking water and sanitation. HAMAP-Humanitaire works to improve access to water and sanitation for vulnerable populations by building wells, catchments, water networks, individual latrines, and sanitary blocks for schools.

Each project also includes an awareness-raising component on the use of water and hygiene and the training of technical advisors to ensure the sustainability of the project.

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is supporting improvements to water access in the villages of Bondji and Bokiladji in Senegal.

These two villages are experiencing difficulties in accessing water, which is having a critical impact on the local people's health and lives.

Residents, typically women and young people, are forced to dig "bouli" (holes) in the tidal flats around ten kilometres from the locality or to fetch water from the Senegal River, around 8 km from Bondji.

HAMAP Humanitaire, with local support from its Senegalese partner APIT Humanitaire, will build a water access network for these three localities from the borehole in the neighbouring commune of Moudéry, in cooperation with the commune of Bokiladji, as well as distribution facilities in each of these, the sustainability of which will be guaranteed by training sessions for those involved and awareness-raising sessions for users.

The project therefore aims to promote the resilience of local populations by ensuring safe and sustainable access to drinking water.

Assistive devices, such as wheelchairs, braces and walkers, are difficult to find in East Africa, and those that are available are often expensive and poorly suited for the local environment. Kyaro Assistive Tech’s devices are unique because they are designed in collaboration with their users. Through an iterative process of interview and feedback, they make devices that are affordable, appropriate, and appealing.

The right assistive device can transform a person’s life, improving not only their physical health but also their social relationships, career, and self-confidence. Kyaro Assistive Tech envisions a world where everyone has access to a life of autonomy, dignity, and community, and are working towards it one assistive device at a time. 

In 2023/24, the Eurofins Foundation is supporting efforts to scale-up access to appropriate wheelchairs in East Africa.

A conventional model for distributing wheelchairs in East Africa is to purchase hospital transfer wheelchairs in bulk from overseas and distribute them as a one-size-fits-all solution to people with disabilities.

This type of wheelchair is not designed for long-term use, and for some disabilities, may lead to severe and life-threatening complications, particularly without proper fitting, education, and follow-up.

Over the past two years, Kyaro Assistive Tech has delivered hundreds of wheelchairs to people across East Africa and developed an extensive set of options and attachments which allow them to deliver appropriate wheelchairs to people with almost any disability. They have also developed a system of assessment, fitting, and training, which is unique among wheelchair providers in this area.

Having proven the effectiveness of our processes and designs, they seek to scale up their manufacturing and fulfilment capacity to ensure that they are able to meet the enormous demand for appropriate wheelchairs in East Africa.  

While more than half of the Guatemalan population speaks a Mayan language, most healthcare services are delivered in Spanish. Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq provides care in the communities where their patients live and in the languages they speak.

The Eurofins Foundation has been supporting the project “Detecting and Preventing Cervical Cancer in Rural Guatemala” since 2021/22.

To prevent illness and deaths from cervical cancer, Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq is combining the latest in screening technology with culturally-sensitive care and navigation. The Cervical Cancer Project provides women in rural Guatemala with the information and resources they need to detect and address early signs of disease. This programme serves more than 2,000 primarily Mayan women in six regions in Guatemala.

While cervical cancer can be prevented and successfully treated with early detection, it remains the leading fatal cancer among women in Guatemala. More than 80% of cervical cancer deaths in the world occur in lower- and middle-income countries like Guatemala, where women face an array of barriers to accessing effective screening and follow-up care, including cost, transportation, language, and discrimination.

To eliminate these barriers, indigenous community health workers travel to patients’ homes and villages to provide screening and follow-up services in patients’ Mayan languages. When advanced treatment is required, the NGO’s navigators accompany patients to help them bridge language and cultural gaps in the public health system. Their new microbiology laboratory supports human papillomavirus (HPV) screening and other diagnostics. The Cervical Cancer Project thus brings lifesaving, high quality, state-of-the-art prevention and care to thousands of women in remote areas.

Eurofins has helped support:

• Materials to collect and process Pap smear samples;
• Training for nurses transitioning from Pap to HPV screening;
• A chemical biologist in charge of preparing their new DNA lab for HPV testing.

For the period October 2022/August 2023,  Maya Health Alliance | Wuqu’ Kawoq  offered health screenings to 5,000 women and administered Pap tests for cervical cancer for 2,102 women. Of the tests administered, 88% showed evidence of abnormal conditions, including infection and inflammation, and 3.7% indicated the presence of precancerous or cancerous cells.

These results underscore the critical importance of moving forward with this work to save lives and prevent needless suffering.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation renews its support to this programme.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the research project: “Development of a photocatalysis method for oxidative conversion of unknown PFAS into measurable species for assessment of total PFAS in food and environmental samples including drinking water”.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are an extensive group of anthropogenic organic compounds which have been extensively used in various industrial and commercial applications for more than half a century. Some of these compounds have been listed on the Stockholm Convention as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and some have been discontinued for use or have been replaced by other similar chemicals.

More than 4,700 of these chemicals are known to exist but only a few of them are monitored due to the practical limitations of targeting thousands of compounds. A recent study indicated that 64% of the organic fluorinated compounds measured in blood from the Swedish population are of unknown chemical identity.

To effectively assess the extent of PFAS, this project aims to develop a method for indirect quantification of unknown PFAS by using photocatalysis to oxidatively convert known and unknown precursor compounds into measurable PFAS in food and water. This project further aims to overcome the challenges and exceed the performance of the state-of-the-art PFAS conversion methods (persulfate activated hydroxyl radical oxidation), which have limitation in its effectiveness, and to provide a method for oxidative conversion in difficult matrices such as foods and wastewater.

Founded in 1784 to set and support professional standards for surgical training and practice in Ireland, the university has seven schools offering undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and professional qualifications aligned to Ireland’s national framework of qualifications. RCSI is the highest ranked (Times Higher Education) university in the world in terms of contribution to good health and well-being, the third United Nations Sustainable Development Goal.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is supporting the project KidSURG Africa in Malawi, which aims to significantly reduce childhood mortality in southern Malawi by training a robust local paediatric workforce.

An estimated two million children are living with a condition that could be treated by either a surgical procedure or consultation. Access to surgical care is a major challenge, and only a fraction receive adequate care. Treatment options are limited because of critical shortages of paediatric equipment and resources and lack of adequate infrastructure to cater to the surgical needs of children.

KidSURG tackles the issue of lack of access to paediatric surgical care for rural Malawians by:

• Addressing the shortfall in surgical equipment and medical expertise within rural hospitals;
• Training healthcare workers to provide high-quality, pre-referral care for complex paediatric surgical patients, and deliver safe surgery locally for some of the most common procedures needed by children;
• Establishing a clinical consultation network, through which paediatric surgeons in city hospitals can provide immediate advice on patient management to clinicians at rural hospitals.

Phase 2 (2023-2026) will train and supervise anaesthesia and nursing providers, enabling selected surgical cases to be undertaken at rural hospitals, where appropriate, and to expand the training, coverage and delivery of accessible paediatric surgery to more rural hospitals.

Santé Sud follows a rights-led approach to healthcare and seeks to strengthen local health facilities and systems to achieve long-lasting change. They seek to build more efficient and equal health systems with local health care facilities and social care partners.

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation supported Santé Sud’s programme “Facilitate the access to health and social services for the most vulnerable families in Bamako’s District 4”.

In Mali, poor access to healthcare is a concern in impoverished urban and rural areas. In Bamako’s District 4, it is estimated that healthcare facility attendance rate is the lowest in the city. Also, very few underprivileged people are aware of their eligibility for the Universal Health Care Scheme (UHCS), which provides free healthcare and social support.

The project aims to improve the quality of care provided by four health centres, increase the number of visits and provide better follow-up. This will be achieved through a comprehensive training programme and an innovative e-health solution: the Electronic Medical Patient Record. Project teams will also conduct outreach work through home visits, providing primary care and prevention and supporting destitute populations to register for and benefit from the UHCS.

Community health workers, medical and social services staff, and local civil society organisations play a critical role in driving this project forward.

In total, as of the end of October 2022 :

• 310 vulnerable families were identified and enrolled in social protection schemes proposed by the UTM (Union Technique de la Mutualité Malienne).
• 798 ‘indigent’ families were identified and assisted to carry out the necessary administrative work for the recognition of indigence and the registration to RAMED+ and RAMED (Universal Health Coverage for 100% free health care);
• 800 children under 5 years old benefited from health follow-up at home and were accompanied to health services as needed. The Community Health Workers carried out at least 1 visit per month to families of these children. They used tablets to create electronic patient files, directly sharing information with the health centers, for more efficient care and follow-up.  

The Rural Eye Health Programme in India aims to increase the uptake of eye health services by the rural poor, women (whose treatment is often not prioritised), and other marginalised groups, including people with disabilities and people from lower castes and tribes.

This project aims to deliver quality eye health services at primary and secondary levels by integrating eye health into existing primary healthcare plans and creating primary eye care facilities.

Since 2021, the Eurofins Foundation continued to support this programme, enabling Sightsavers to reach more than 225,000 individuals with eye screenings and provided more than 8,000 people with sight-saving cataract surgery.

The district’s vision centres offered a variety of eye care services, such as eye examinations, refractions (eye tests for glasses), provision of affordable glasses, identification of diseases that could cause blindness, and referral of patients with more complicated eye conditions to hospitals for further care. In 2023, more than 15,000 people have been refracted and 6,000 people have received glasses.

The project has conducted 48 outreach camps throughout the year to ensure Sightsavers reach those in the most rural areas, including all genders and people with disabilities. The teams consisted of an optometrist and camp coordinator. They conducted screenings and referred cases to the next level facility where required. People that have been identified as in need of eye surgery were referred to the base hospital.

In 2023, the project has trained 335 ASHA workers (Accredited Social Health Activist) on common eye disorders and early patient identification and referral. 70 ophthalmic staff also received training to upgrade their technical skills on eye care techniques. Community Based Organizations (CBOs) were involved to ensure greater participation and uptake at vision centres and screenings camps. Extensive outreach activities using information materials like pamphlets, posters, leaflets, and loudspeaker announcements were conducted to raise awareness of eye health, as well as the treatments and services available to communities.

In 2023/2025, the Eurofins Foundation renews its support to Sightsavers for this project.

In 2021, So They Can's programmes empowered 45,000 children and their communities in Kenya and Tanzania. So They Can developed a holistic approach whereby its Educational Programmes are implemented alongside initiatives in other focus areas, which all contribute towards child and community development and improved learning outcomes. These areas include child wellbeing, women's empowerment and community health and development. Access to water, food security, improved hygiene, sanitation and medical care, and economic empowerment all expand the population's capacity to provide a safe and nurturing environment for their children.

Since 2012/2022, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the “Education and Community Health Programme” in Kenya.

The Kenyan Children's Act of 2001 forbids early or forced marriage for people under 18. However, in East Pokot, girls of 10 years and above undergo female genital mutilation as a preparatory stage for marriage, often considered as culturally compulsory. Currently, 85% of 9-13-year-old girls from Pokot will experience female genital mutilation and be forced into child marriage. 

The Education Programme is implemented alongside other programmes to holistically empower the communities So They Can partners with and make the programmes sustainable, with a clear exit strategy.

Objectives are realised through the delivery of various projects such as improving school infrastructure, enhancing food security by educating teachers and students on improved farming techniques, and keeping girls in school, along with helping the community to realise the importance of girls' education, prevent child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM), and protect their human rights, health and wellbeing. 

Funding from the Eurofins Foundation has enabled So They Can to carry out improved health related activities in Kenya and contributed specifically to community heatlh, with the objective of improved health of community members, including students at programme-supported school, through the provision of quality, well-resourced health care services by partner medical clinics.

6,462 students at 11 programme-supported schools and 168 teachers benefitted from school improvement Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) facilities as a result of this project. Improvements included 10 water tanks provided to schools, 3 existing boreholes rehabilitated, and 6 water points installed/ established. 11 school management boards were also engaged in WASH sensitisation activities.

In addition, 9,310 patients were diagnosed and treated at 2 local medical clinics as a result of this project, which impacted the entire surrounding communities of approximately 30,139 community members. 234 attended ANC clinics at the facilities, contributing to reduced neonatal deaths.

As a result of the impact of So They Can’s support to local medical facilities, the local government approached the So They Can Kenya team to request that the organisation carry out medical camps to service remote communities in the regions where So They Can work to ensure the provision of preventative, curative and referral health services and information to marginalised community members in those areas who have limited or no access to health care due to barriers of distance, cost and low literacy.

In June 2022 the first medical camp was piloted by So They Can Kenya, in the Kamathatha community in Nakuru County. The local Kamathatha Primary School provided their facilities for the camp, and 250 adults (80% of whom were women), and 60 children received free, quality basic health care, improving their general health and wellbeing. Due to the success of the activity, 6 medical camps will be carried out annually in 2023 and 2024 to enable 8,000 community members to directly benefit in underserved communities, in partnership with the local government and medical facilities.

For the period January – September 2023 only, funding from the Eurofins Foundation has enabled So They Can to carry out activities in Kenya and specifically contributed to:

• 8,099 patients diagnosed and treated at three local medical clinics.
• 1,322 community members in hard-to-reach areas accessed basic medical care through three one-day medical camps.
• 5,163 students and 129 teachers at five program-supported primary schools in Nakuru benefitted from established school farms that cultivate and harvest nutritious food to supplement school feeding programmes.
• 9,346 students and 234 teachers at 15 program-supported primary schools accessing improved sanitation facilities and a clean, safe water supply for the improved overall health of the school community.

In 2023/2025, the Eurofins Foundation renews its support to So They Can.

In 2019 and 2021, Eurofins Foundation supported UNICEF’s Health Kits (IMCI) Programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Despite significant progress in the last 20 years, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is characterised by excessive child mortality (104 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2014) and maternal mortality (846 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014) caused by malnutrition, neonatal infections, and preventable diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoeal diseases. This is a consequence of the lack of basic drugs at household level, the financial burden on low-income families, preventing them from accessing their local health centre, and the limited engagement with communities in terms of preventive healthcare. To tackle and reduce mortality rates, UNICEF has partnered with the Government of DRC to distribute family kits to children and pregnant women.

The first kit is for young children, to treat diarrhoea and fever in children under five, and also contains multiple micronutrient supplements for children between 6 and 23 months. The second health kit is for pregnant women, to facilitate a cleaner and safer delivery of their babies and provide newborn aftercare at health facilities.

Both kits contain the basic drugs and materials needed to reduce expenses and increase access to quality treatment.  Parents and caregivers are also informed and educated about different health risks and diseases and ways to adequately respond to them.

In 2021, the objective was to reach 1.6 million people with 400,937 IMCI kits and 116,441 delivery kits in eight health zones in the DRC. Support from the Eurofins Foundation made it possible to scale up the strategy addressing maternal and child mortality through these actions:

• Empowering management teams at provincial and health zone levels through capacity building;
• Strengthening strategic partnerships with key partners such as the Global Fund, World Bank, GAVI, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to enhance resource mobilisation;
• Providing detailed needs analyses according to available resources;
• Continuously strengthening community engagement with quarterly kit distributions.

This programme in the DRC has involved the Ministry of Health to emphasise the importance of health services at community level and invest in health infrastructure and education. The direct impact of this project on child mortality rates has convinced the government and local decision-makers of the importance of health services.

Throughout 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation is providing support to UNICEF's project "Indonesia's support for Girls' Education and Empowerment through STEM skills".

Adolescents, especially girls, continue to face significant challenges in attaining quality education and acquiring the skills they need for success in the future. Rapid urbanisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are bringing unprecedented changes to Indonesia that not everyone is equipped to manage.

Indonesia has the third-largest adolescent population in the world. This growing demographic means that the working-age population will likely grow much bigger than the dependent population, creating a demographic dividend.

Yet, despite Indonesia's steady economic growth, young people continue to face significant challenges.

Through this project, UNICEF aims to support tailored skill development programmes for adolescent girls through training, intensive boot camps and mentorship sessions.

The project also aims to promote alternative and innovative learning opportunities to encourage the meaningful participation of women and girls in discussions regarding the issues affecting them by co-creating digital solutions.

UNICEF works with relevant ministries, local governments, and civil society organisations to integrate the programme into the national education policy.

In 2024/2025, the Eurofins Foundation provides a new grant to UNICEF Belgium, for the project “ Access to Safe Water, Sanitation, Hygiene (WASH) and Community Engagement in Munduruku Indigenous Schools”, in Brazil.

The project’s goals are:

• Upgrade WASH Facilities: Enhance infrastructure in 10 schools, benefiting approximately 500 indigenous children and adolescents.
• Train Indigenous Sanitation Agents: Equip local agents with skills to maintain and manage WASH facilities.
• Environmental Education: Implement programmes and train young indigenous communicators to promote environmental awareness.
• Develop Water Safety Plans: Create strategies to manage environmental and climate-related risks, including Water Safety Plans. 

UNICEF works with relevant ministries, local governments, and civil society organisations to integrate this programme into the national education policy.

With a student body of over 23,000 (as of Autumn 2021) and faculty/staff totalling over 7,000, it comprises 13 Academic Schools and Colleges, with fields of expertise in medicine, public health, and information sciences.

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation contributed to a partnership between the University of Louisville, the Malawi University of Science and Technology, and Eurofins Scientific to support a multi-pathogen wastewater surveillance pilot in Malawi.

The pilot aimed to set up a multi-pathogen community wastewater surveillance that would allow low and middle-income county communities to provide quicker public health responses and to stop any disease outbreaks.

Approximately 98% of the Malawian population relies on onsite sanitation systems as opposed to centralised treatment plants servicing piped sewer networks. This type of sanitation structure – which is mainly composed of shared pit latrines – is more prone to pathogen spread.

There are logistical constraints on piloting community wastewater pathogen detection for low and middle-income countries, namely a lack of consistent power in the laboratory and internet for data sharing, and no local primer or probe manufacturing, meaning all equipment and reagents must be imported. Although there is extensive local expertise in setting up multi-parameter water quality laboratories and single wastewater pathogen detection in such environments, how this will apply to multi-pathogen wastewater surveillance system has not been tried in real world conditions in Malawi yet.

To be able to detect and contain re-emerging and novel threats, best practices for setting up multi-pathogen wastewater surveillance in these types of environments must be developed and shared. Two of the proposed pathogens on which the pilot project focuses, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) and cholera, have had active outbreaks in 2022. This new surveillance method therefore offers a unique testing situation, and the innovative project will help to advocate for its implementation on a government level.

The pilot project has reached the following milestones by December 2023:

• Successfully wrapped up a laboratory pilot in Malawi on primers and probes for cholera. This was developed in partnership with the Malawi University of Science and Technology, University of Louisville and the Eurofins Environment Testing California Wastewater team.
• Started ongoing collaborative discussions about the development of primers and probes for measles as the next priority pathogen.
• Published two peer-reviewed papers on wastewater public health surveillance in Malawi.
• An online webinar was organised based on the results of the study.
• Girls Science Day in Malawi was held in June 2023, focusing on wastewater, sanitation, and viruses. 250 girls attended from 5 local elementary schools. The University of Louisville also included a scope around ‘Jobs in STEM’ under the wastewater, sanitation, and virus themes, as there is a very high youth unemployment rate in Malawi.

The Eurofins Foundation renews its support to this project in 2023/2024.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the WASH'n'soul Phase II project in Zambia.

WASHnSoul is a unique project which brings water, sanitation, and hygiene improvements to nine peri-urban Zambian schools. Their activities include constructing climate-resilient facilities, promoting behaviour change, and maintaining facilities. The project collaborates with BORDA, an NGO based in Zambia, and Soul Bottles, a German social enterprise.

The United Nations Joint Monitoring Program found that 18% of Zambian schools lack access to basic water, and 50% do not have handwashing facilities. A national survey found that 17% of schools lack toilets. Poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in densely populated urban areas result in schools being unhealthy and uninspiring places for learning. Lack of sanitary facilities means girls may have to miss school during menstruation.

The goal is to identify which facilities require rehabilitation or upgrading and address the poor management at the root of the issues. To do so, the project will train school committees or community members on operating and maintaining the facilities and provide advice on financing future repairs.

The project will benefit nine urban schools in Zambia, serving approximately 9,000 students. This initiative is part of a comprehensive three-year programme that has benefited 20 schools and over 25,000 people in Lusaka, Zambia.

More recently, community transmission of COVID-19 has been further exacerbated by the lack of access to water and proper hygiene practices, like handwashing with soap and water. Water For People provides access to safe drinking water, sanitation services, and hygiene education that allows people to combat these issues. Its monitoring framework is designed to capture the number of people directly and indirectly reached through improvement of water and sanitation systems in municipalities where they work.

Since 2019, the Eurofins Foundation has contributed to many aspects of the project ‘Everyone Forever in Bolivia’, including:

• The construction or renovation of six community water systems, bringing improved water services to 3,576 people in six communities;
• A collaboration with municipal governments to construct or renovate water infrastructure, resulting in the creation of 82 temporary jobs;
• The organisation of 18 hygiene education workshops for 611 representatives from the Ministry of Education, school principals and staff, parents, and teachers in five ‘Everyone Forever’ municipalities;
• In the Arani and San Pedro municipalities, the achievement of the ‘Forever milestone’ for water, indicating that a sustainable water service has been established and communities and the local government have the skills and capacity to ensure water services continue for future generations.

In 2021/2022, the Eurofins Foundation helped the organisation build on the success of the programme in previous years.

The grant contributed to the implementation of WASH interventions in the eight Everyone Forever municipalities where Water for People work in Bolivia including through:

• The construction or rehabilitation of six community water systems, reaching 1,210 people with improved water service in six communities within four municipalities;
• The construction or expansion of WASH infrastructure in eight schools, improving access to WASH services for 1,434 students and school staff.

As a result, Water for People reached their Everyone milestone for water in communities in the municipality of Tiraque, meaning that at least 90% of the communities in Tiraque now have high or intermediate water point levels of service, and no communities in the municipality are classified as having inadequate or unimproved water services.  A secondary benefit of Water For People’s partnerships with municipal governments to construct or rehabilitate water infrastructure is the development of employment opportunities. Five temporary jobs related to the WASH sector were created – 40% of which were filled by women.  

In 2022/2023, the Eurofins Foundation renewed its support to this programme in Bolivia, contributing to many achievements, including:

• The construction of two new and three rehabilitated community water systems, reaching 379 people with improved water service in five communities in the municipalities of Arani, Pocona, and Tiraque.
• Water For People reached 717 students and school staff with improved WASH services through the new construction, rehabilitation, and expansion of WASH infrastructure at seven schools in these.
• The infrastructure is also now equipped with a separate change room for female students and staff that provides them with a safe space to accommodate menstrual hygiene management (MHM) needs.
• Water For People hosted 25 different WASH-focused workshops for educators and parents at schools in Arani. In addition, these workshops and meeting specifically addressed and explained the new school hygiene policies to teachers, parents, and students from 51 schools, and provided the participants with additional information and training on Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM).
• Water For People partnered with the Head of Basic Sanitation (JMSB in Spanish) to facilitate a workshop for school administrators and teachers representing 18 schools within the same six municipalities. With the primary objectives of helping to implement “hygiene corners” in elementary-level classrooms and MHM spaces for middle school and high school students, the workshop also focused on handwashing with soap and water, bathroom cleanliness, management of MHM spaces, and environmental activities to promote reforestation.

The Eurofins Foundation renews its support to this initiative for the period 2023/2025.

Established in 2007, World Child Cancer works in 12 countries across Asia and Africa, as well as in Mexico, to improve access to, and the quality of, paediatric oncology services, through facilitating training of medics, equipping wards, providing direct support to families, and raising awareness of early warning signs of childhood cancer.

World Child Cancer is an official partner of the World Health Organisation in implementing their Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer, which aims to double the global survival rate for children with cancer to 60% by 2030. World Child Cancer also collaborates with respective Ministries of Health to deliver interventions that progress the Global Initiative.

In 2023/2024, the Eurofins Foundation is contributing to the work of World Child Cancer on “nutrition provision for children with cancer to improve their treatment and health outcomes.” 

In the lower-income countries where the project will take place, healthcare is extremely under-resourced, with childhood cancer survival rates standing at just 10-20%. Amongst other factors, poor nutrition is a contribution to low survival rates.

When children with cancer suffer from chronic malnutrition, they are at significant risk of poor growth and poor response to treatment. As many as half of the children presenting at World Child Cancer’s partner hospitals are malnourished.The Eurofins Foundation’s grant will help ensure children being treated for cancer in partner hospitals in Myanmar, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malawi and Cameroon can be nutritionally supported whilst undergoing treatment. By funding nutritional supplements for children, supporting parents’ nutritional workshops and by training healthcare staff on partner paediatric oncology wards on how to effectively assess the nutritional status and provide nutritional intervention, the programme will improve an estimated 2,180 children’s chances of survival and long-term health outcomes.