Build Safe & Sanitary Toilets for a School in Tanzania

Who We Are:

We are a team of nine engineering undergraduate students who are passionate about using the skills we are gaining in college to make a difference in people’s lives around the world.

What We Are Doing:

We are partnering with a non-profit in Tanzania called Tanzania ecoVolunteerism to design and build a new set of latrines for visually impaired students at an elementary school.  The new latrines will greatly improve the health, sanitation, and overall quality of life for the school children and faculty and staff. 

We are conducting this project as part of a program called Projects for Under-served Communities (PUC), which works in developing countries to provide technical solutions to meet the needs of communities and improve their overall quality of life and well-being.  After participating in PUC’s year-long program consisting of one project management course and one design course, we will travel to Tanzania to implement the latrine project as the final component of the program.

How We Are Making an Impact:

Most Tanzanians only have five years of schooling or less, and nearly sixty-eight percent of the population is living in poverty on about $1.25 per day.  In 2002, only about seven percent of the country’s rural population had access to improved facilities that promote proper sanitary conditions. 

The PUC Tanzania Team will work with an elementary school called Pongwe Primary School that is located in Pongwe, a small village in the Tanga region of Tanzania.  The school currently serves 900 day students, and 70 visually impaired students who board at the school.  Currently, there are not enough latrines at the school to properly serve its continually growing student population.  Specifically, there is currently only one latrine for all 70 of the visually impaired students, which includes boys and girls.  This is critically over capacity for one septic tank system.  Our team will build a new 10-stall latrine for the visually impaired students, including a septic tank that can handle this capacity.  Our project will include an education component about hygiene and maintenance of the latrines and septic system

Help us make a difference:

You can help us make an impact in these communities, while impacting our education. We are each paying for our own travel, but we need $9,000 to pay for the costs of materials for the latrines and septic tank.  This means 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. Plus, all donations are tax deductible, as donations through this site go directly through The University of Texas at Austin.

Please note that during the fall semester of 2014, this team of dedicated students had already put in countless hours of hard work towards completing this project when they received devastating news--the original sponsor organization had to revoke all of its promised funding due to the downturn in the gas and oil industry--making our need for your support even greater!

Every dollar helps us towards our goal. Please make a donation and help our team make an impact in this little corner of the world, and spread the word about our project by using the icons at the top of the page to share with your friends, family and colleagues.

Help us live up to UT’s motto: what starts here changes the world!

Will you help us change the world?