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Miscellaneous

Hoteliers Do Good

November 10, 2005 at 9:30 AM | 0 Comments

To prove we aren't all bad, we are going to start the day with a couple hotelier do gooder stories.

Recently, Cara Spalla, general manger of Hotel@MIT, received an unusual request from a MIT Masters in City Planning candidate.

The request was for soap.  Lots of soap.  Furthermore, that soap was to be sent and distributed to schoolchildren in Mozambique.

Mozambique is one of the poorest nations on the African continent. Home to 17 million people Mozambique lies on the Indian Ocean.

The team from M.I.T.'s City Planning School was leading an educational outreach program to elementary schools in Maputo (yup, happy Maputo Day y'all), the capital of Mozambique.
Soap is a valuable commodity in Maputo, and schools rarely have the budget to provide it in their bathrooms. It is often stolen when provided.

Thanks to the generosity of Spalla and Hotel@MIT, Brown and her team left for Mozambique carrying 12 dozen bars of soap. They left with the hope that this donation would become an educational building block in Mozambique.

The soap donated by the hotel was used in games re-emphasizing the importance of proper hygiene, and of the country's larger sanitation systems. At the end of the games the children were given bars of soap to take home.

According to Spalla:

Participation in initiatives like the M.I.T. Mozambique Sanitation project helps to serve as a reminder that the norms in civilization many of us take for granted daily, is life altering in many areas of the world.  

Related Stories:
·   Maputo [I Go U Go]
·   Hotel@MIT Reviews [TripAdvisor]