Explosions and slime is just the sort of chemistry kids love! The Chemistry outreach programme is not just about getting more children interested in science, it's about having fun, building confidence and providing new opportunities.

The programme, for both primary and secondary schools, is coordinated by Warwick's own enthusiastic chemist, Nick Barker, along with academic staff, researchers and PhD students. We visit local schools and hosts visits to campus - in fact, it’s the only programme we know that invites children into the university teaching laboratories. Many of the children attending have never visited a campus or even thought about university. Many have little confidence at the start of the session, thinking chemistry is too hard, but the transformational effect of these sessions is incredible. Often it's hard to get the children to leave! Nick says:

Within no time at all, we see pupils from all backgrounds doing really technical things with skill and confidence. Putting people out of their comfort zones, making them face a really technically challenging task and struggle with it for a while before succeeding is such a healthy experience for anyone. It often leaves them thinking better of themselves and their abilities.

Nearly 1200 children worked for a day in our labs last year and I have been privileged to see some wonderful things, such as children realising they’re good at science after all! Donations help us bring young people to a truer realisation of their abilities, and of the beauty and relevance of science."

Donations also help us to run similar artistic outreach programmes from the Warwick Arts Centre too.

Want to help? Donate to outreach projects now (select 'other' and type gift direction)

It's amazing to think that nearly 100 clubs and societies have benefited from over £100,000 of Opportunity Fund bursaries since 2001 - all funded through donations!

This fund offers fantastic opportunities to students across campus, helping them to experience the other side of campus life through extra-curricular sports and societies activities.

On a practical level your donations help students to purchase equipment or fund activities which they couldn't otherwise afford.

On an emotional level, you're helping students to develop lifelong skills, confidence, and memories, and you're providing an important equalising chance for those who could not afford to explore this side of university life without your support. Read more.

Want to help? Donate to student clubs and societies now (select 'other' and type gift direction)

Healthcare

Donations help research into cancer, dementia, recurrent miscarriage, and more at Warwick.

Professor Sioban Quenby, from Warwick Medical School, is a world leading fertility expert, and donations support her research into recurrent miscarriages and infertility, helping women give birth to healthy babies.

Here is one story from a family helped by donations to Warwick:

Our GP referred us to Professor Quenby after we had suffered recurrent early miscarriages. We kept getting pregnant, but each time our baby would not survive past week six. This had a devastating effect on our lives, putting a strain on our relationship and making normal day to day living virtually impossible. Initially we could not find a cause for these recurrent miscarriages which only added to the sense of loss and frustration.

Professor Quenby embarked on a series of tests and after becoming pregnant in February 2012 my wife was prescribed progesterone to be used twice daily until the end of the first trimester. As the six week scan approached we were both extremely apprehensive, as we’d never seen a heartbeat from any of our lost pregnancies, but we hoped that the treatment would work. To our delight, amazement and ultimately tears of joy we saw our little baby’s heartbeat for the first time.

Each stage of the pregnancy came and went without further incident and I am delighted to report that the little heartbeat we saw on that wonderful day grew stronger and stronger. Our daughter was born weighing 7lbs 9oz on 1 November 2012. Through the same treatment my wife and I had our second successful pregnancy and our son was born on 24th November 2014 [both pictured].

We consider ourselves extremely lucky to have been under the care of Professor Quenby. On behalf of myself and my beautiful family I want to say thank you for all the time, effort, expertise and lateral thinking you have displayed, finding answers when most found only questions. We’ll never be able to show how grateful we are."

Want to help? Donate to your favourite health project now

Warwick in Africa

Donations also fund Warwick in Africa, a well-established innovative, philanthropically funded programme, developed over nine years from a small student volunteering project to a multi-layered programme which supports learners and their teachers with Maths and English teaching in South Africa, Tanzania and Ghana.

Over 210,000 learners and 1,400 teachers have benefited so far. Its fundamental aim is to enhance the education of young people in Africa, a direct route to liberation from poverty

"The Warwick teachers changed my view on learning maths at school because almost every person in my class is improving. We used to fail maths but now we pass it. " (Nombuso Nxumalo, Madibane High School Soweto, South Africa)

Want to help? Donate to Warwick in Africa now