Cameroon Catalyst A student driven international development charity empowering sustainable change in
Eastern Cameroon.

Committee members

Oliver Gregory
Ben Hutton-Penman
Ali Zomorrodian
Tia Joseph
Oscar Lopez-Cottrell
Vanessa Ng
Dominic Soltau
Jacob Frusher
Pamela Shahbakhti
Joseph Galliers
Daniel Corbett
Ellie Ironside
Alexander Newton
James Denbigh

For over a decade, the University of Southampton’s chapter of Cameroon catalyst has provided support for deprived villages in Eastern Cameroon and has offered a unique opportunity for students to get hands-on experience with directly making an impact! The Southampton chapter has three main sections: Design, Fundraising and recently, Medical.

With 7 hand-dug wells, rainwater harvesting systems, a solar electrification hub and several other projects, the Design team across the charity have designed and delivered projects tailored to the local community needs. Last year, works for the charity’s first borehole well commenced, and for this academic year, the design team have developed plans for a repair and maintenance system to address the >60% failed wells across rural Cameroon. The upcoming trip in July will consist of setting up a repair and maintenance system to ensure the village of Grand Mboulaye has safe drinking water all year round.

The Medical team completed their first needs assessment survey during the 2024 trip to Cameroon. From this, the team decided to address the ongoing burden of malaria in local populations in East Cameroon. This project aims to enhance knowledge, enable positive attitudes and promote effective practices to combat malaria. We will provide insecticide treated mosquito net to every child under the age of 5 years in the village of Bambouti. 3 medical students from the University of Southampton will be travelling to Cameroon in July 2025 to carry out net distribution and interactive workshops.

Without the Fundraising team, the interventions we perform would not be possible. At our Easter Bonanza at UoS, we managed to raise over £400, and other fundraising events consisted of singing carols in Winchester, along with our Winter Wonderland and Halloween Helper. We also achieved success through personal fundraising such as sponsored walks and runs. Next year, we plan to dedicate an entire month to raising money for the charity via a multitude of personal challenges.