Hey :)

Cameroon Catalyst is a charity run by civil engineering students (with some help from others, such as French students!) from the University of Southampton who design, fundraise-for and build (with employed locals) projects in Cameroon each year. Past projects include a medical centre, 2 school classrooms, a skills workshop (for carpentry, etc.) and a solar-powered electricity hub, which is being used to power fridges in the medical centre and encourage micro-businesses in the village. More information can be found here - http://camerooncatalyst.org/ 

Last year I went to Cameroon with the team. I helped to build the solar-powered electricity hub, and then a few of us carried out 2-3 weeks of research to see what our future projects should be, and in which village. It really opened my eyes, and showed me how much impact we can have over there - but also, how much there is to do still. 

Having been motivated by this to keep going, I've been involved in Cameroon Catalyst as the Vice President this year, supporting the team as and when needed. We're working to improve housing over there this year (importantly, using local materials so the model can be easily adapted and replicated), which will hopefully have lots of positive health/social impacts. It would be really great if you could support us in this! 

I'll be swimming 10km (a ridiculous 400 lengths!) in early June to raise awareness of, and money for, Cameroon Catalyst. I've never swam anywhere near that distance before, so it should be suitably painful/disgusting. It'd be brilliant if you could donate anything, however small, to keep me motivated!

*Important* - ALL money donated will go to the construction of the houses and future projects - NONE will go towards us/our trip costs, you're NOT paying for us to have a "holiday"! 

Thank you for all support - and please do contact me for any other information about Cameroon Catalyst! 

Ant :)