The population of Tanzania is estimated at 44 million and 46% of people (20.2 million) lack access to safe drinking water. This results in a variety of waterborne and water-based diseases including dysentery, typhoid, and cholera. The infant mortality rate is 11.8% and it is estimated that 88% of these deaths are related to water-borne disease. Our partner in Tanzania is Safe Water Ceramics of East Africa (SWCEA). The SWCEA factory, located in the Ngulelo village just outside the city of Arusha, is managed and operated by Tanzanian entrepreneurs and craftspeople. SWCEA’s goal is to reduce the occurrence of waterborne diarrheal diseases through the manufacture and distribution of effective, low-cost, locally made ceramic water filters. SWCEA also works to empower the local community by educating local Tanzanians on the importance of water treatment and the benefits of using ceramic water filters to encourage long term usage. SWCEA is bringing a better quality of life to Tanzanians through education, employment, and improved health.
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We are very fortunate to have a wonderful volunteer, Leslie Koehler, who has agreed to move her family to Tanzania from August 2011-August 2012 to work with our factory, Safe Water Ceramics of East Africa (SWCEA). Leslie is an artist, a professional potter for twenty years, and founder of L. Koehler Pottery in Marshfield, Vermont. Leslie received a degree in Art History from the University of Massachusetts focusing her studies on Japanese Ceramics. After graduation she held a year long apprenticeship with a potter in Amherst, Massachusetts. Leslie then traveled first to Alaska, then to Africa where she worked with traditional potters to learn the artistic skills of indigenous cultures. Moving to Vermont in 1985, Leslie worked as studio assistant at the University of Vermont, then resident potter and instructor of pottery at both the Shelburne Craft School and Goddard College. Leslie is looking forward to assisting SAFE Water Now in many areas to help the people of East Africa obtain safe drinking water for their families. To read more about Leslie, visit her website – here.
