Our Crowdfunding Groups
After almost four weeks in Tanzania working on our project, the girls’ dormitory is almost complete! With the help of contractors we were able to get the walls completed, build the roof trusses and attach them to the building. When we left the building looked great, but still had some work to be done. We are so very proud of the work done and the continued dedication of the contractors and our NGO. Below is a picture of the buildings current state as of July 17, 2016! Check out our blog to read our in-country posts and the Updates section for more info on our trip.
by an extremely generous group of anonymous donors!
We are partnering with a Tanzanian nongovernmental organization (NGO) called Tanzania ecoVolunteerism (TeV) to design and build an educational facility at a local primary school. We will be expanding the capacity of a dormitory for visually impaired girls at the Pongwe Primary School (ages 6-13). We will making education accessible to children for the first time, so you can imagine how much thought, time, and effort is going into this process. We are working hard every day with the help of our professors, engineering professionals, and the in-country NGO to ensure the community’s needs are met and the project is feasible and sustainable for the future.
After participating in PUC’s year-long program consisting of both a project management and design course, we will then travel to Tanzania to implement this educational facility project. We are ecstatic to further develop our education by implementing what we’ve learned here at UT with the beloved Tanzanian community of Pongwe. We need your help to make this happen!
Every dollar helps us attain our goal of working with this community to impact their life, as well as both of our educational experiences. All of our team members are paying for our own travel and in-country expenses, but we need at least $15,000 to pay for the costs of materials. Every gift through this site will be matched 1:1 by an extremely generous group of anonymous donors! That means if you donate $100, we receive $200! That's double the impact; your money goes farther. Does your employer match donations to universities? Triple, even quadruple the impact by finding out here (http://www.matchinggifts.com/utexas/)!
Most of the materials for this structure, if not all, will be bought from local Tanzanian suppliers, stimulating their economy. These supplies include concrete (and LOTS of it), wall and floor finishing, and roofing materials. Every dollar you donate will go directly to the community and will support our education as professionals and growth as leaders as we design, plan for, and build this project.
You may be wondering what you are getting out of this. Besides knowing that you are enabling girls in Tanzania to receive an education for the first time, all donations are tax deductible!!! This is because all donations through this HornRaiser site go directly through The University of Texas at Austin.
Giving Levels:
Easily contribute via our giving levels found on the right side of the page! These levels describe what your donation can purchase in country at the amount described. We want these children to have a new school facility that brings new friends and new experiences, so when we receive adequate funding to build our structure, the level items will then be purchased in-country from a local supplier and given directly to the students! We would love the opportunity to purchase all of these level items, so please share this page to and friends and family to help reach our goal and more!
Education is a key component of the Government of Tanzania’s development agenda, yet most Tanzanians only have 5 years of schooling or less. While about 80% of primary school-age children attend school, the enrollment rate for lower secondary education has dropped to 30.8% and then to 1.9% for upper secondary school. Enrolling a higher number of students by providing schools with new facilities will increase the number of children likely to continue their education. Building new facilities at these schools will provide the community with more teachers and enable a higher enrollment of children to better learning environments. Hearing about these new buildings and teachers can encourage the communities to get their children enrolled on time and excited about a new school year
Pongwe Primary School is a school located in the Tanga region of Tanzania that serves over 900 children, 70 of which are visually impaired, with and without albinism (pictured above). Children from all over board at the school for the duration of the school year because it is the only school within 1000 Km to accept these visually impaired children. The school is currently unable to enroll any more visually impaired female students because they do not have the boarding capacity; that's where we come in.
Our team will be doubling the capacity of the current dormitory for the amazing girls of Pongwe, allowing the enrollment of twice as many visually impaired girls! This will be done by relocating the current matron of the school who resides in the girls dorm building. A separating interior wall will be removed, returning the full dormitory to the girls and doubling the space! We will construct a multi-use standalone building that will be used as the matron's cottage for the time being, but will be designed to be converted into a much needed clinic for the school in the near future.
“Team Tanzania” is a passionate and focused group of students from both the Cockrell School of Engineering and the School of Social Work who have joined together for one main cause: to make education accessible to everyone. While we understand this is a huge task, it must start somewhere. We have decided to start this mission at a local primary school outside of Tanga, Tanzania.
We are conducting this project as a part of the University of Texas’ Projects with Under-Served Communities (PUC) program. PUC combines the two challenges of community need and student enrichment in an innovative project-based, service-learning collaboration with rigorous coursework and hands-on, practical experience.
Thank you so much for spending your time learning about Team Tanzania and our goal to make education accessible for everyone. Please read on to learn more! You are appreciated by each and every one of us and we ask that you share our story and HornRaiser page to anyone and everyone you know! You never know which cousin or uncle feels just as passionate as we do about this cause.
As you know at UT, what starts here changes the world. Will you change the world with us? We can’t do it without you.
Mchezaji means Athlete in Swahili. A donation of $25 can purchase equipment for the children to play with in their school yard such as soccer balls, jump ropes, marbles and more! These items would be purchased in country to help stimulate the community's economy.
The Teacher: A donation of $100 could purchase school supplies for the children from a local shop in town. This not only benefits the children, but the community's economy as well!
The Doctor: A donation of $500 could purchase the supplies needed to install simple hand-washing stations throughout the school yard. These stations would embrace the knowledge and implementation of preventing the spreading of germs and sicknesses!
The Environmentalist: A donation of $1000 could enable the installation of a rainwater collection unit on the structure we are building. By means of gutters, filters and piping, the school can collect clean water with ease!
The Carpenter: A donation of $5,000 can enable the purchasing of bunk beds to accommodate the expanded dormitory (given Pongwe is our selected project) or classroom furnishings such as chalk boards, desks, chairs, etc... (given Mtimbwani is our selected project)
