Since coming to Pop!Tech in 2005 as a Sun Microsystems Fellow, Neema Mgana has been developing the first project of her Rural Center of Excellence – a hospital, a medical training center, and a secondary school in Ipuli, Tanzania. The project was born out of a collaboration that began at Pop!Tech when Neema was introduced to Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, and to Larry Smith of Haley & Aldrich.

Sponsored by Haley & Aldrich. Beth Cohen and Michele Bowman from Pop!Tech, Vikki Ott from Haley & Aldrich, and cameraman Bill Megalos recently traveled to visit the project. (Watch the longer version of the video update in our Pop!Cast archive, here.)

Ipuli is a small, rural village in the east Rift Valley of Tanzania, a stunning landscape filled with endless hills and soil that is a deep, rich red. Home to the Wanyiramna tribe for generations, life in Ipuli is simple but challenging: the village has no electricity or running water. A regional school draws students from neighboring villages, but there are no books and only a handful of classrooms have chairs for the nearly 500 students. Medical care is almost non-existent here; the village has no hospital and no doctors.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Just getting to Ipuli is difficult. The main road there is broken and dusty. By the time we arrived after a two-day journey from Dar es Salaam, we had red dust on our faces and cameras lenses, and our cameraman had something akin to whiplash.

Neema’s parents, Charles and Helena, grew up in Ipuli and the family became committed to this project after hearing the story from a young medical assistant: mothers and fathers were pooling months and months of salary to take sick children to the nearest hospital over 80 km away, sometimes making excruciating decisions as to who would be treated and who would not; pregnant women in labor were being carried over the broken road often by oxcart and bicycle to reach the nearest doctor.

In this region, the major health problem is malaria, followed closely by acute respiratory infection, pneumonia, eye infections and diarrhea. Infant and maternal mortality rates are high, and life expectancy continues to decrease due to HIV/AIDS.

Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

To build the hospital, men draw water from the pond, and shovel sand from the river, mixing them with cement and then hand-cranking concrete blocks. The bricks then take a day or more to dry in the sun, a process that grinds to a halt during the rainy season. So far the men have made 6500 bricks, and the foundation for this future hospital is slowly becoming a reality.

Neema at Goat Ceremony, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

In a small ceremony, the village elders gave Neema two goats, gifts of gratitude and honor. Last week we received an email from Charles who wrote that one of these elders had fallen very sick and was diagnosed with severe malaria and typhoid. Charles found him lying ill at home after he had been released from the local clinic, and so gently tucked him into his car, and drove the 80 kilometers to get him the health care that may keep him alive. Thanks to Haley & Aldrich, Architecture for Humanity, Neema Mgana and other supporters, when the Rural Center of Excellence opens its doors this spring, medical help will no longer be a long and arduous journey, but will be a part of the community and its future.

The Rural Center of Excellence still needs support. If you would like more information on the project, or if you would like to find out how you can help, please email Neema Mgana at nmgana@yahoo.com.

Four Ipuli boys and their future clinic, Photo by Vikki Ott, Haley & Aldrich

Beth Cohen,
Michele Bowman