Happy holidays from the CBS team!

Dear CBS Contributors,

Thank you for an amazing year.

2018 has been nothing other than extraordinary for the CBS project;

• We finished building the MVP and implemented it in Somaliland (with great success!),

Left: Somali Red Crescent Society volunteers testing the CBS platform. Right: Somali Red Crescent Society health unit

• We had 2 codeathons — one of which was featured on Norwegian national news — (and many more code evenings),
• The number of total CBS contributors grew to 130(!) people,

Left: Participants at Codeathon 2.0, February 2018. Right: Kick-off at codeathon 3.0, September 2018.

• We hosted CBS trainings in Senegal and Myanmar,

Left: CBS Facilitators during CBS training in Myanmar, April 2018. Right: Participants working hard during the CBS training in Dakar in October.

• and started the implementation of the MVP in Senegal;

Colleagues from the Senegalese Red Cross discussing CBS implementation

all of this thanks to you — our CBS contributors.

Without you there wouldn’t be an MVP, there wouldn’t be any pilot projects and there wouldn’t be any software building. Without you, we wouldn’t have this amazing platform — one which keeps proving that it works and which keeps impressing people wherever we go.

Without you there would be people, off-the-grid and without functioning health surveillance systems, unable to report health risks in their communities. YOU are changing this! You are giving communities the chance to improve their health security.

We know that working on the CBS platform can be frustrating — it takes time away from work and family, it has challenging bugs and things to fix. Yet, you keep on showing up, codeathon after codeathon, code evening after code evening and evening after evening at home, to use your skills to help volunteers in communities who need it.

For this, we are extremely grateful!

We have no doubt that 2019 will be another amazing year for the CBS platform and we are excited for more challenges, issues, victories and late night pizza with you, our CBS contributors.

For now, we hope you have a great holiday and that you come back motivated and ready to dive back into the CBS platform (- for instance at the codeathon in January !?).

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year,
The CBS Team