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

While talk of AIDS has become nothing but white noise for many, Zinhle Thabethe, a counselor working on the frontlines of the South African HIV epidemic, is taking action. Through home visits, working with AIDS orphans, educating nurses and doctors, and singing in the internationally acclaimed HIV-positive Sinikithemba Choir, Zinny’s goal is to fight stigma by raising awareness, and to ensure that people with HIV get plugged into treatment and stay on treatment – all in one of the most resource-constrained environments in the world.

Now, National Geographic is recognizing Zinny’s extraordinary contributions by naming her one of the 2008 class of Emerging Explorers – individuals who represent the next generation of world-changing talent from many different fields.

We continue to work with Zinny and her colleague, Dr. Krista Dong of iTeach, on Project Masiluleke, a Pop!Tech Accelerator project focused on using mobile devices to improve HIV care in South Africa and beyond. And we join in congratulating Zinny on her National Geographic nomination.

We recently received an update from Neema Mgana on the amazing Ipuli Medical Center project. There are some really exciting developments. Neema writes:

Dear all,
Greetings from Dar es salaam, Tanzania! The weather has been very irregular and we are currently suffering from extreme heat and humidity. I have been doing some traveling and a lot of writing about the project in Ipuli village and wanted to give you an update on where we are.

First the most recent news. The Iramba district (Ipuli falls into this district) has now been divided into West and East (for political reasons). We just found out that the main governmental district office for both regions will be built just next to the Medical center. This means that there will be additional infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc) to the area and we very much suspect that the government will welcome the Ipuli Medical center to be a district hospital. If that is the case, then the government would cover all expenses (including the purchase of drugs and supplies, staff salaries, etc) for the medical center. This is a decision that we have to make if this is the direction that we want to go towards. The attraction would be that funding would be provided but the other side of this is that we want to guarantee the medical center will always strive towards quality in staff and services.
(more of the letter here)

The Iramba district (of which Ipuli is part) has been divided into East and West for political reasons. As a result, there will be two government offices built right next to the Medical center. This means that infrastructure such as roads and electricity will be created surrounding the medical center, making the center that much more accessible to those needing medical care.

Of course there is still much more work to be done and funds to be raised. Property owned by Neema’s family in Tanzania is being converted into a bed and breakfast which will create additional income for the project and serve as a place to stay for people visiting Tanzania or those making the trip from the city of Dar es Salaam to the Ipuli Village(which is a 2 day journey).

Another source of income is from the basket-making business started by the women of Ipuli. Below are pictures of some the crafts made by these women to support the project and can be purchased by emailing Neema directly at

nmagana(at)yahoo.com. And as always, we encourage you to visit the

Pop!Tech Giving

site where you can donate to the Ipuli Medical Center as well as the many other amazing projects that were presented at Pop!Tech last year.

It also looks as though the center is generating some media noise and sources have been interested in the Ipuli Medical story. We can’t wait to hear more updates from Neema as those develop.

For more information on the project see the link to

Architecture For Humanity.

A few nights ago, I was lucky enough to join Neema Mgana and architect Gaston Tolila at the National Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in NYC where the Ipuli Media Complex was selected as one of the best designs of the past three years.

The Triennial brings together the experimental designs and emerging ideas-including animation, new media, and fashion, robotics, architecture, product, medical, and graphic design-at the center of American culture from 2003 to 2006.

Gaston Tolila and his partner Nicholas Gilliland are architects from Paris who are designing the Ipuli Medical Complex in Tanzania after teaming up with Cameron Sinclair’s Architecture for Humanity who in turn met with Neema Mgana at the 2005 Pop!Tech.

Pop!Tech wants to congratulate Neema, Gaston and Nicholas and everyone involved in this remarkable project. It is truly inspiring not only to see this endeavor come to fruition, but also to see it receive the attention and accololades it deserves.

Gaston and exhibit vistor

Close up of Ipuli Medical Complex model

Gaston and Neema

models and sketches of the first building of the complex

Pop!Tech Speaker and Sun Fellow Neema Mgana was recently interviewed in (Red) Alert, a publication exploring how the emergency of AIDS in Africa intersects with our lives.

In the article, Neema shared the evolution of the Rural Center of Excellence in Ipuli, Tanzania from its beginnings at Pop!Tech 2005 where she paired with founder of Architecture for Humanity, Cameron Sinclair to initiate the building process.

Neema Mgana is a social entrepreneur, the leader of a remarkable AIDS treatment program in Tanzania, and was the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.

Click here to read the article.

Congratulations to Victoria Hale! The John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation has named Victoria one of its distinguished fellows. Each year,the foundation awards fellowships to individuals who demonstrate exceptional merit and promise of continued creative work.

Victoria is founder and CEO of the Institute for OneWorld Health, a nonprofit pharmaceutical company with a mission to develop affordable drugs to treat diseases that plague the world’’s poorest communities.The institute recently received approval for and brought to market its first drug, paromomycin, a low-cost antibiotic cure for visceral leishmaniasis, which afflicts approximately 1.5 million people worldwide, primarily in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sudan. Research to create paromomycin was largely funded by a grant of $10 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Treatments underway for malaria, diarrheal disease, and Chagas disease hold the potential to save the lives of millions more.

We are thrilled to have Victoria join us this year in Camden to share with us her amazing work and future developments in global health care.