Where we are off to next!

Mstombogo, Tanzania August, 2010 

The village of Mstombogo has been selected as the site for our next project.  It has a population of 4,000 and yet only 400 children attend the Mstombogo Primary School.  It will be interesting to see the data that is collected from the parent interviews as the ratio of population to children who attend school is so small. As this primary school is the only one in the community and mining is common in the area, we fear that parents are sending their children to go hunt for Tanzanite instead of sending them to school. As the search for Tanzanite becomes more and more difficult, the risk to children increases drastically. Though it is our belief that an education is invaluable, in mining villages, it is essential for schools to provide something more enticing than scholastics alone. Once clean drinking water is available at the school, it will be interesting to see how significantly the enrollment increases. It is what makes this project so important – not only will the presence of a large scale rain catchment system provide clean drinking water, it will also provide the inspiration to get children to attend school.

Mstombogo has other great challenges as well. Driving through this community, the abject poverty and dramatic drop in any economic development is apparent. Almost every house is constructed with dung bricks and a thatched roof.  If the roof is made of metal – it is scrapped pieces that have been salvaged. Mstombogo is situated in an extremely flat part of the region and neighbors Mbuguni, the location of our last project.  Similarly, three major rivers converge just uphill from this community and so flooding becomes such a serious issue.  Each time it rains heavily, it is common for there to be about 2 to 3 feet of standing water throughout the entire village including the school. Because of this, the children suffer tremendously. Each time the floods occur, the school must shut its doors for weeks until the flooding subsides and the damage to the classrooms are repaired.  There is no education about flood-tolerant crops, so malnutrition is visually apparent. But probably the worst affects from the floods are the guaranteed cholera and typhoid outbreaks that follow. The equation of severe poverty and illnesses that require 6 months worth of medication can prove to be fatal.

Our objective is to build a 120,000 liter rainwater harvesting tank on the Mstombogo primary school. However, because of the extreme flooding, we are going to engineer systems that will have at least 3 feet of foundation. This guarantees that the tap stations are always well above the flood waters so that the rainwater cannot become contaminated.  We will also be orchestrating a community Earthworks project. This work will educate the villagers on flood control, infiltration and diversion tactics. The goal will be to divert the water away from residences and common gathering places at the same time as enriching the soil moisture to increase their crop yield. Because rainwater harvesting is naturally sustainable but always sight specific, we need to increase our budget for this project to accommodate the flooding circumstances. We are asking for your help. The children of Mstombogo are juggling so many of life’s obstacles. Together, we can turn the challenges into opportunities that will improve their lives.

Mstombogo Primary School

If we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much.~ Marian Wright Edelman