CDI was founded by enterprising students at the University of Cambridge and we are currently entering our 8th year as an organisation. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have unfortunately been unable to make our usual summer expedition to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania to work in close collaboration with our local partners, Kite DSM. While this has inevitably come as a huge disappointment to us all, we are keen to continue (virtually!) the fundraising effort in preparation for next summer and in support of our partners on the ground.

We pride ourselves on being a student-led NGO that pilots impactful and sustainable development initiatives in a range of projects, including Sanitation (WaSH), Health, Education, and Entrepreneurship. Working firmly in opposition to the culture of 'voluntourism', we view students as more than simply free labour, and deeply value the energy and creativity that they naturally bring.

Over the course of the previous years, we have recruited and trained over 100 volunteers from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences to partake in our exciting work. This year, we will be engaging in four main projects:

1. CDI's WaSH project engages directly with community leaders to provide a sustainable, community-focused solution to the sanitation crisis in Tanzania. Operating in Dar es Salaam's informal settlements, the team works with local technicians to construct sewage systems that overcome construction challenges while providing economic incentives for local ownership. The propagation of these sewage systems paves the way for a solution to the transmission fo waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrhoea. This year the team will focus on improving standards in the primary and secondary public schools of Vingunguti, and conduct research on the sources of contamination of drinking water in the last 100m of transportation, as well as possible interventions to reduce this risk.

2. The CDI Health project expands healthcare access within Dar es Salaam's informal settlements by partnering with local health workers and community members to create capacity-building initiatives. In recent years it has launched training programmes in the areas of family planning, maternal health, sanitation, and STI prevention, which have reached over 135 community members. This year the team will be be prioritising mental health work, looking to establish a partnership with the Mental Health Association of Tanzania to pilot mental health workshops for secondary school and universtudy students in Dar es Salaam, as well as create faculty 'access points' that can direct individual students to resources that exist in the community. In addition, it will be continuing its work in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH), building upon work undertaken in previous years to broaden the scope of workshops offered and work in collaboration with local organisations to offer more visually arresting 3D animations for educative purposes.

3. Our Education project seeks to improve Tanzania's education system by empowering students to become agents of positive change in their communities, which involves developing students' professional capacities and thereby instilling confidence in them. This year the team will continue its work of 'KomputHER', a project addressing the lack of technological skills and business literacy among women running small business enterprises by helping them build skills in marketing, social media, accounting, and business-development on computers and smartphones, which will be delivered in close collaboration with local organisations like Help2Help and Dot Tanzania. In addition, it will address the issue of difficulty that students have in transitioning from Swahili to English as the medium of instruction when moving from primary to secondary school by providing a more interactive and activity-based variation of last year's English-speaking workshops, working closely with the University of Dar es Salaam and Ardhi University.

4. The Entrepreneurship project enables Tanzanian youth to kickstart innovative businesses that are transforming Dar es Salaam's professional landscape. This programme has provided over 70 young adults with entrepreneurial skills, incubated over 30 social enterprises, and connected over 450 students, business professionals, and government leaders in a network of shared hope and resources. This year the team will develop an accelerator aimed at helping start-ups to gain investment readiness and grow their entrepreneurial business. For this, we will recruit volunteers from both UK and Tanzanian business schools and establish training programmes and guides for consultancy, especially with regard to developing business and entrepreneurial skills. One hope is that the accelerator will eventually provide seed-funding for entrepreneurs, focusing on smaller start-ups by students and young entrepreneurs.