Tengeru, Tanzania

A Village with an extraordinary Past

In 1942, during the 2nd world war, 150,000 Polish children from concentration camps were separated from their families and displaced in groups of 10,000. Somehow, the village of Tengeru, Tanzania was selected to become one of the refugee camps. Only 5000 survived the journey to Africa.

For 10 years, the Catholic church tried to help these children survive a new kind of war. Inevitably most of the children perished from malaria, typhoid and other water borne illness. Some survived and return yearly to pay tribute to their history at the cemetery - the only remaining part of the refugee camp.

Last year, students from the Reconstructionist Synagogue in Plandom, New York, reached out to Save the Rain wanting to raise money to help a village. When we told them about this unique village, they immediately jumped on board to help. By spring, 2009, they raised $15,000.00. When they presented Save the Rain with the check, they said: “67 years ago, the poor and starving village of Tengeru, Tanzania graciously took in some of our children and did their best to give them a better life. Today, it is time that we return the favor.”

In Septmeber 2009, during the Highest Jewish Holiday, Save the Rain's director went to the cemetary to say a prayer for the children that perished in that war and for the ones perishing now.

On October 8th, 2009 Save the Rain completed Tengeru’s 60,000 liter Rainwater Harvesting system and today it is beginning to fill with clean water and the promise of a better future.

Links to recent past projects

Patandi, Tanzania - March 2009

February 2008

One of the most rewarding parts of this last trip was the ability to test our rain catchment system in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. Thanks to Dr. Roth and his team at Micrology Labs, we were able to test the water quality on our own. The spots you see in the test results are fecal coliforms and other bacteria present in the water. Here are two samples of the water quality test results from a government supplied pipe and the stream water.

The Nambala Stream                             The Kikwe Pipe

Here are two samples of rain water collected from Save the Rain projects. It so exciting!!

Rainwater collected from Save the Rain projects in Namballa and Karanguy done over the last 3 years. You can't argue with the science!!