Background:

The Tanzania project began in 2007. A delegation of the "Brit olam " , led by Itai Peri and Liron Yochai , in cooperation with Tel Aviv University students traveled to the village Ming'ingo in the District of Babti in northern Tanzania . The purpose of the mission was to help the children of the village through educational and humanitarian means.

The desire to help the children of the village was born when hiking, Itai Perry, head of the delegation, saw the medical situation and daily hardships of the children and most of residents in the village. In this region of Tanzania, the drinking water is saturated with exceptionally high amounts of fluoride. Fluoride in drinking water causes, severe developmental problems, especially in children, which are expressed in skeletal deformities, cleft lip, and other dental problems.

Soon afterwards, the Engineers Without Borders chapter at the University of Tel Aviv was created and it was decided to initiate a water purification project in the village.

Next, the various project members worked to promote the project in any way possible. It quickly became clear that it is necessary to carry out a survey trip to the village for a thorough review of the exact problems at hand. For about two years, members of the project contacted local organizations and officials, trying to gather as much information and contacts as possible. Simultaneously, the team contacted professionals in Israel and abroad, and worked on raising funds for the project.

Assessment Trip - September 2013:

Finally, in September 2013, a delegation flew to the village. The trip was two weeks long and the people who went were: Eran Roll, Maayan Raviv , students of Electrical Engineering at the University , and Idit Zarhi , a Water Engineer working at Ecolog and former member on the delegation to Nepal from the Technion chapter of EWB.

As stated, the purpose of the delegation was to clarify facts and form strong local ties. The delegation met with local contacts, people who worked with the community for years, government officials and professionals in the relevant fields. During the trip the delegation surveyed village water reservoirs, the educational and medical infrastructures and developed a plan of action to continue the project as displayed below.

Tanzania Project

Potable Water and Solar Energy for the People of Minjingu

1

2

Provide power supply using an off grid photo-voltaic system to Medical Center in the province of Nkaiti. The Medical center is in the village Ming'ingo and serves the people of the village with a population of about 3000 people. There is an existing electrical and plumbing infrastructure in the building but it is not connected to the national grid. Therefore, our main goal is to supply a reliable source of electricity to the center, which will allow the holding of a refrigerator for vaccines and medical equipment, as well as lighting and other electrical appliances.

3

Project Goals:

Supply clean drinking water to the medical center Nkaiti . The center serves between 10-12 patients a day but does not receive a constant supply of potable water. The water will be used for medical needs, as well as the staff's family needs, that live in structure adjacent to the center. We plan to realize this goal by creating a main rainwater collector large enough to satisfy the operational needs of the center.

Supply clean drinking water to one high school in the Nkaiti province. The school has 400 students and runs regularly throughout the year. Through proper use, the roof space of the school can be used to collect enough water to meet the needs of school children throughout the dry season (approximately 9 months—which comes to 250 thousand liters according to our calculations).

Installing a Rain Water Harvesting System - October 2014:

On the October 2014, a delegation of 5 members of the project left to visit the village Minjingu in Northern Tanzania for the second time. Its purpose was to complete the third goal of the project as mentioned above, the installation of rain water harvesting system in the local high school (Nkaiti Secondary School). The system can hold water up to a volume of 48,000 Liters and after being filtered in three different levels, in order to guarantee high quality water. This system will supply drinking and cooking water for the 400 students and staff members of the school.

Throughout the entire journey and work the members of the delegation had encountered quite a few obstacles. However, due to ingenuity and extensive preparation, the members of the delegation were able to provide a high quality system, whilst giving an educational program to the students which included 4 different lesson arrays on the correct use of water and the maintenance of the newly installed system.

It is highly important to mention the vast support given by the local community. The entire work was done hand in hand with a local team of volunteers, through the youngest of the student, to the school alumni who arrived each day to pitch in and all the way up to teacher staff which helped between classes. It is also worth mentioning the school administration who had organized a ceremony of thanks and celebration of the new system, with various village board members and local government employees.

Today, the team keeps on working on a daily basis. The goals stated above are still highly important for the members, and even the possibility of expanding the newly installed system. During the coming year the team will keep on raising money, professionals and volunteers in order to keep improving the lives of the Minjingu community.

Those stages of the project were made possible through the generous contribution of:

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.