Thank you for visiting my fundraising page.

In January 2008, I shall be leaving for Tanzania to work with the charity Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW). A brief description of SPW's work is on the left of this page, and you can find more information at www.spw.org.

For eight months I shall be living in a remote village in Tanzania working as part of SPW's Health Education Programme in a local school. The programme will focus on raising young people's awareness of important health issues including sanitation, nutrition and especially HIV and AIDS. We will be using participatory non-formal education techniques such as discussions, group work, drama and art to build confidence and self-esteem in the children and a greater understanding of the issues raised.

This programme is exceptional: I will be paired up with a Tanzanian volunteer on my arrival and following one month of intensive training we will move into a rural village where we shall live and work together with the community. It is the involvement of local people that attracted me to this programme, as I strongly believe that without such involvement, development projects cannot be ultimately sustainable.

ANY donation would be appreciated, as hard currency goes a long way in Tanzania. You can also be sure that your money will benefit these communities directly, rather than being lost in administration costs, as I shall personally ensure that your money is used to benefit the village in which I will work.

Thanks for reading this far! Please now go one step further, dig deep and sponsor me online. After enabling costs (flights, insurance etc), a donation of around £9 will cover one day of subsistence and teaching expenses for the national volunteer I am teamed with and I. If that is a stretch, please consider giving up just the cost of a pint or whatever you can afford - in the words of a certain retailing tyrant, 'every little helps'!

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Students Partnership Worldwide will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

Those of you at City Uni can witness my first silly attempt to raise sponsorship - going to all my final exams with my face painted as an African animal! Surely that's worth a couple of quid!

Many thanks for your support.

Dipak

*Update 08/10/07 - The £1000 shown as 'raised offline' below is a donation I made myself from work I have been doing since finishing uni. I paid in a cheque direct to the charity to avoid the small debit card deduction charged by Justgiving, as it would have been more significant on a single donation of £1000. A couple of people have asked me about that amount, so I hope this explains!