Water Access for Morogoro, Tanzania

My name is Dr. Shannon Risk, a history professor at Niagara University. I am posting this page on behalf of my Fulbright colleague, Mr. Rasel Madaha, president of AGEN-Tanzania. Rasel held a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Buffalo. Now he is back in his hometown of Morogoro, Tanzania, where he has established  the non-profit AGEN. This group provides low-interest micro-loans to women throughout Tanzania and other parts of Africa, but especially those living in rural areas. It has been shown that when women have access to a business, they, in turn, use their earnings to better their whole communities. 

Here is his organization's website http://www.agentz.org (AGEN in Tanzania, Africa)

Rasel writes: I and Prof. Shannon (a fulbrighter and a history professor at Niagara University. I am posting this page on behalf of my Fulbright colleague) have started a campaign with grassroots women in Tushikamane Street, Morogoro, Tanzania to provide better access to tap water to marginalized people.  Originally, the project goal was to build a tap water point to allow women access tap water at a nearest point so as to prevent them from walking through unsafe conditions. The contributions from the original project were going to be used to build a community school in the neighbourhood. Recently, however, more people in the neighbourhood (50 households) raised more funds to bring a major 4 inches PVC pipe (piped-in water) covering 354 meters from the nearest tap water sources (with 1.5 inches branches covering 300 meters) with the aim to ensure that each of the households gets tap water. A total of $3500 from community members and other stakeholders (Individuals, AGEN-USA Inc, and MORUWASA- government water authority) has been raised and spent in the project. 

Although the majority of women have contributed funds to bring piped water into the neighbourhood, the majority of them cannot afford expenses associated with installing tap water into their respective households. In view of that, this project is about raising funds to create a cumulative fund to enable people and women in particular living in the street to get low interest loans to install a tap water system into their respective households. Then, they will repay the loan in four months with a small interest of 10%. The funds will then be passed to other women in the neighbourhood who will in turn install the tap water system in their households. In so doing, each of the household in the neighbourhood will have access to tap water. Once all the households have access to tap water in their respective households, the funds will be used to build a community school to serve people from the neighbourhood.  



In this video (accessed at https://youtu.be/0h1sa4c-lRU ), Rasel narrates stories on the challenges faced by community members and how AGEN (and its grassroots implementing partner) has helped them bring piped water into the neighbourhood. For details about other AGEN’s interventions, please visit www.agentz.org The women are truly holding up "Half the Sky" and they deserve to be assisted.


Your donation, small or big, can make a big difference in these women's lives by making water more accessible and in safer conditions, plus helping the women as entrepreneurs who wish to use the money earned to build a school. There are two sites for fundraising a)https://www.gofundme.com/2aamn6n8 (everyone can donate through this site)

b) https://causes.benevity.org/projects/78895 (this site receives donations only from Microsoft employees)

 

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.  Please help us reach our goal.




 

We are conducting this campaign from August 8, 2016 through December 31, 2016. Please helps us reach our goal.