2008 Woodie Awards
Engineers volunteer in Africa
Kevin Rand
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: News
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The 2,200 residents of Ngelenge, Tanzania in Africa, in dire need of a water supply, shared one hand-pumped well as their only source for dirty and unsafe drinking water.
A group called Engineers Without Borders believes that determining the specific needs, economic situations and cultural attributes of "disadvantaged communities," such as the one in Ngelenge, is the best way to help, said Francis Doumet, a leader of the Appropriate Technology Design Team for a San Francisco based professional chapter of the group.
At a gathering yesterday in the Almaden room of the Student Union, Doumet, along with one of his colleagues, Erin McCauley, talked about and presented slideshows of a few of their volunteer efforts in Sudan and Tanzania, Africa.
McCauley said that when she and some group volunteers traveled to Ngelenge, they worked with local village residents and found that what the people were most in need of were health facilities and a well with clean water.
She said the nearest professional healthcare for Ngelenge is five kilometers away, and the roads out of town are nearly inadequate. The water from the lone well in the village is not clean or safe, she said.
"Now, the health dispensary is near completion," McCauley said, "and we wound up drilling three wells."
The project was mostly funded by donations, she said.
"I think they're doing a great job," said Winnie Ndemange, a sophomore majoring in nursing.
"I'm from Kenya, so I'm very interested to learn about what they're doing."
Doumet's volunteer group visited Darfur, Sudan, an area he said is the size of Texas with about 2.2 million residents. He said most of the people are refugees, and one of their biggest problems is lack of sufficient stoves.
"Most people live in makeshift camps," he said. "They cook on three-stone stoves, which are very inefficient. The women and children have to gather wood for the stoves, and that is an eight-hour journey that has to take place several times a week."
A group called Engineers Without Borders believes that determining the specific needs, economic situations and cultural attributes of "disadvantaged communities," such as the one in Ngelenge, is the best way to help, said Francis Doumet, a leader of the Appropriate Technology Design Team for a San Francisco based professional chapter of the group.
At a gathering yesterday in the Almaden room of the Student Union, Doumet, along with one of his colleagues, Erin McCauley, talked about and presented slideshows of a few of their volunteer efforts in Sudan and Tanzania, Africa.
McCauley said that when she and some group volunteers traveled to Ngelenge, they worked with local village residents and found that what the people were most in need of were health facilities and a well with clean water.
She said the nearest professional healthcare for Ngelenge is five kilometers away, and the roads out of town are nearly inadequate. The water from the lone well in the village is not clean or safe, she said.
"Now, the health dispensary is near completion," McCauley said, "and we wound up drilling three wells."
The project was mostly funded by donations, she said.
"I think they're doing a great job," said Winnie Ndemange, a sophomore majoring in nursing.
"I'm from Kenya, so I'm very interested to learn about what they're doing."
Doumet's volunteer group visited Darfur, Sudan, an area he said is the size of Texas with about 2.2 million residents. He said most of the people are refugees, and one of their biggest problems is lack of sufficient stoves.
"Most people live in makeshift camps," he said. "They cook on three-stone stoves, which are very inefficient. The women and children have to gather wood for the stoves, and that is an eight-hour journey that has to take place several times a week."
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