Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As many of you are already aware, I am travelling to Tanzania on the 5th of September for a duration of 3 months to volunteer in the small town 'Moshi'. I thought it would be a great idea to raise money for the trust I am volunteering with, as well as going out there to help myself!!!

Here is some information on the programme and how your donation will help change lives.

Nearly 40% of the rural population in Tanzania are currently living below the poverty line, with few rural households having access to safe drinking water, primary education and medical treatment. I will be volunteering in the Mbokomu School in the small village of Korini Kusini (3000 inhabitants), located on the outskirts of Moshi town at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania. It is a mixed day school with 803 students ranging from the ages of 5-16 years and 23 teachers.The majority of students come from Korini Kusini and other surrounding villages and many children have to walk over 20 km a day just to attend school.

Our main objective is to improve the schools existing facilities by renovating rundown and dilapidated classrooms as well as building new facilities for the children so that they can enjoy a safe and stimulating educational environment.

At the moment, many of the school classrooms are in such poor condition or do not have enough desks and chairs that children are taught outside under the shade of trees. This, together with poor flooring in existing classrooms, is significantly contributing to the incidences of Jiggers (a flea-borne infection). This parasitic flea lives in soil and sand and will burrow into bare feet to lay eggs that eventually hatch into painful parasites. The resultant infection leads to expensive medical bills and inevitable loss of study time for children. Life is made even harder during the rainy seasons as torrential downpours contribute to large scale soil erosion and flooding of the school grounds, making it very difficult to move around and creating breeding areas for waterborne infections.

Camps International Trust (CIT) is a new charity that has been established in UK to raise funds for two linked charities operating abroad. It is the charitable arm of the highly innovative Camps International organisation which has been involved in supporting community and wildlife projects with local communities.

It emphasises responsible and ethical tourism by active participation with the local communities and by disseminating information on the benefits to the community and the wildlife that surrounds them.

Camps International already has sustainable development and conservation projects running in Kenya and Tanzania and is about to expand with similar ventures in Borneo. The CIT charity will direct funds to support these projects and ensure every penny is carefully spent. It important to stress that, unlike large international charities, CIT will avoid local government or other non-governmental agencies directing with how the money is distributed.  The most important question asked by those who have taken part in any programme or wish to donate is how their donation is spent. CIT will assess and prioritise project proposals submitted by Camps International Trust (Africa) and Camps International Trust (Asia) and then allocate financial grants to these two local charities. It will then follow up these grants by reviewing progress reports from Camps International.

Your valuable contribution will support development and maintenance projects within the school and subsequently improve the living standards of the surrounding community.

Projects will include: