Women Building Tanzania Initiative Update
By Jennifer Bruen, REI Project Coordinator
Congratulations are in order AGAIN!
The MSU Network for Global Civic Engagement has awarded the CCED, NIA Hope for Youth Organization (NIAHOPU) and partners at the University of Dar es Salaam with a second round of $8,000 to pursue the Women Building Tanzania (WBT) initiative and field work at Kiparang’anda Primary School. The Network for Global Civic Engagement is a university-wide teaching and research collaboration that provides resources and activities to participating MSU colleges and major administrative units with a particular interest in global civic engagement in the United States and abroad.
In spring 2019, the NGCE awarded the WBT team with an $8,000 grant and CCED matched it with $6,000, allowing a few of the WBT team to travel to Tanzania for site visits, introductory meetings, and to begin to develop a strategic plan.
Together Tanzanian partners—NIA, Hope for Youth, and the University of Dar es Salaam—and an MSU team are creating an interdisciplinary team across the two universities to develop a strategy to engage more young women in STEM occupations, while simultaneously addressing critical water, sanitation, hygiene, sexual harassment, and health issues at Kiparang’anda Primary School.
Jennifer Bruen, Victoria Koda, Bertha Koda, Isaack Ruasa, and John Melcher will leverage intellectual assets to improve the lives of students and young women in Tanzania. The project is proposing to engage faculty in the fields of education, gender studies, anthropology, sociology, chemistry, physics, hydrology, soil science, engineering, and public health as part of an interdisciplinary collaborative training and research team. To learn more about this initiative and to get involved visit the WBT story map: https://ced.msu.edu/programs/women-building-tanzania