Nomination from Community Funds CLAPA Welcome Packs
A generous grant from the Croda Foundation is funding CLAPA’s Welcome Packs of special bottles and teats until August 2024. This grant was made possible thanks to a nomination from employee Gareth, who was born with a cleft.
What are Welcome Packs?
Many babies born with a cleft can’t create a vacuum with their mouths, so they can’t feed from a breast or regular bottle. It’s like trying to drink through a straw with a hole in it – even if they manage to get the milk through, it’s exhausting, and they won’t be able to get enough nutrition to thrive and put on weight, which is especially vital for babies needing surgery.
CLAPA has always been a source of special feeding bottles and teats for babies born with a cleft, and since 2007, we have provided free ‘Welcome Packs’ of bottles and teats to new families all over the UK.
Created in partnership with NHS Cleft Nurse Specialists, these Welcome Packs offer relief, hope and a practical solution for parents struggling to feed their babies. Without these special bottles and teats, parents often have to resort to time-consuming methods like spoon or syringe-feeding or even invasive methods like feeding tubes. With these special bottles and teats, they can quickly establish a feeding routine and leave the hospital to enjoy those precious early weeks of bonding at home.
“I received a Welcome Pack and squeezy bottle from CLAPA during the lockdown and it helped enormously. My child had her palate intact, so we were told by the Cleft Team that we could use the normal feeding bottles, but she found it way too difficult as her cleft was very wide. The bottle we received from CLAPA was a lifesaver. Also, the information pack was very useful because I felt I wasn’t dealing with everything on my own.” – Kaori, mother
CLAPA sends out around 730 of these Welcome Packs each year to families in need around the UK.
Grant from the Croda Foundation
In August 2023, CLAPA received nearly £30,000 from the Croda Foundation to fund these Welcome Packs for an entire year!
This generous grant covered not only the cost of the feeding products inside the Welcome Packs but also storage, postage, packing, and administration costs. Five months into the grant period, this money has paid for 263 Welcome Packs to be sent out from our small London office to families from Antrim to York.
This application was made possible thanks to a nomination from Gareth, an employee at Croda International. We caught up with Gareth about his cleft journey and why he decided to put CLAPA forward to receive this donation.
Gareth’s Story
Gareth says, “I was born in 1972 in Cardiff with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, and had several operations as a baby and infant to repair my lip and palate. I had an operation aged 7 to release the muscles in my lip, then at the age of 11, I believe I was one of the first children in the UK to have my upper jaw completed with a bone graft from my hip.
“During my childhood my parents were keen supporters of CLAPA and for many years Mum and Dad were the teat and bottle distributors for South Wales and our spare room contained boxes and boxes of bottles and teats. I have been a long-time supporter of CLAPA and make a monthly donation to CLAPA as well as doing several Facebook Birthday fundraisers for CLAPA.
“The Croda Foundation was established a few years ago, and I saw CLAPA as a perfect charity to receive a grant from them. I was aware of the financial crisis CLAPA found itself in during the covid-19 pandemic and hoped any award would help them, and more importantly my fellow clefters!
“The nomination process was fairly straightforward and greatly supported by Nazia Mutto and Rommel Moseley in the Croda Foundation. On receipt of the announcement, which was broadcast to the whole company, a number of known and previously unknown colleagues contacted me to congratulate me and also share their family cleft story!”
Once CLAPA was alerted about the nomination, our Fundraising Team got to work providing all the details needed to the Foundation before making a full application to support our Welcome Packs. This application was successful, and Gareth was delighted.
“I received the notification on 30th June 2023, which would have been my late mum’s 78th birthday. We lost her to cancer on 22 March 2020, and I can’t imagine a better heavenly birthday present for her! I can hear her voice telling me how wonderful this award is and how much good it can do!
“I hope this helps all families who need a welcome pack and allows children to feed as normally as possible, eradicating any issues they may have.”
Gareth says it made him feel “very proud and humble” to know that, because of his nomination, every Welcome Pack for a new family will be paid for by the Croda Foundation for an entire year.
Does your workplace have a charitable foundation?
Many companies like Croda International have charitable foundations or other workplace fundraising initiatives. Most will welcome nominations from staff members based on personal connections to a cause like cleft lip and palate. CLAPA is a small charity with no NHS or government funding, so grants like these can make a huge difference to what we can accomplish each year!
Our fundraising team can take care of all the details and help you with any information you might need to make a nomination; all you need to do is share with your workplace why cleft matters to you.
As Gareth says, “If you don’t ask, you don’t know, so ask!”
