MIT Engineers Without Borders: Tanzania

Located in the remote Tanzanian village of Mkutani, the Mkutani dispensary serves as the local health care center for a community of approximately 4,800 people. Back in 2018 and 2019, meetings with female members of the village helped our chapter identify some initial concerns surrounding privacy at the dispensary and the current state of the facility. At that time, the village’s dispensary committee concluded that roughly 1 in 3 mothers in the area had to be referred elsewhere and gave birth outside the community. As recently as 2021, new rough estimations predicted that as many as 50% of births in the area were taking place outside of the local Mkutani health dispensary.

During the summer of 2022, several members of our team took our first trip back to the community since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, reconnecting with the local officials, conducting focus groups, and collecting information needed to reevaluate the current conditions at the health care center. From that trip, we learned that despite serving a large community, the facility only has enough patient rooms to accommodate two beds, and the staff often encounter challenges in obtaining clean water for patient care and general dispensary use. Additionally, UTIs are common among women in the region due to cultural taboos around menstrual health.

With your assistance, MIT-EWB plans to construct an additional interior room for the facility that could house 1-2 more patients. Roof renovations will create improved ventilation and maintenance access, and will include the installation of a better water catchment system with purification capabilities. We will also add a new patient room, external walls, windows, doors, and a tiled floor. Lastly, through menstrual health workshops, we hope to teach better hygiene practices to Mkutani women, including the proper use of menstrual cups. Ultimately, our objective is to improve both menstrual health awareness and maternal care in the surrounding area by creating a dedicated space where mothers in the community can feel safe and provided for when delivering their children. 

We will be traveling to Mkutani in the summer of 2024 to begin the implementation process at the dispensary. Preparation for this trip includes fundraising, planning, and coordinating with our contacts in Tanzania. During the trip, we plan to construct the new roof and conduct menstrual health workshops. Soon after, construction of the new patient room will commence, and we will monitor this progress on a second trip the following summer.

How You Can Help

Your donation helps us pay for travel, costs of construction materials, and costs for construction contractors. Questions? Contact us at ewb-exec@mit.edu.

About Engineers Without Borders

EWB is a nonprofit that partners with people from countries around the globe, working with them to find solutions that will improve the quality of life in their communities. 

As part of the MIT Engineers Without Borders chapter, a student-run organization, we are learning practices that will make us lifelong change-makers. Our team is a diverse group of engineers, scientists, leaders, designers, humanitarians, and innovators who are working together to create a better world, one community at a time. 

What Your Gifts Could Cover

$1 covers the cost of 5 bricks that will be used to construct new patient rooms. 

$150 covers the cost of a new door and window.  

$200 covers the cost of a new clean water tank.

$300 covers the cost of 4 new patient room walls. 

$2000 covers the cost of a new water catchment system