EWB hosts project showcase, fundraiser

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) hosted its annual Dessert Reception and Project Showcase fundraiser this past Sunday evening. EWB professional partners, sponsors and interested professionals attended the event, which showcased the current EWB projects and featured presentations by executive members of EWB-USA.

"[The evening was meant to] thank our professional partners and our sponsors for basically giving us the funds to do all these projects," sophomore Emily Prosser, the Fundraising co-chair for EWB, said.

Prosser, along with sophomore Hayley Normile, the other Fundraising co-chair, were the principle organizers of the dessert reception.

Attendees were able to contribute via direct donation or by purchasing raffle tickets.

The raffle featured prizes donated from local businesses and purchased by EWB teams during trips to their project countries. Prizes included gift cards to local restaurants and blankets and jewelry from Guatemala.

Prosser reported a much improved turnout over last year's reception, which she credits to a more rigorous publicizing campaign.

According to Prosser, EWB Public Relations Manager, sophomore Adhiraj Goel, submitted a press release for the event to Hopkins Communications Director, Dennis O'Shea, who then distributed it to local media outlets, including the Baltimore Sun and the JHU Gazette.

EWB also attempted more grass roots advertising by soliciting engineering firms to post fliers for the Dessert Reception in their offices.

Many of EWB's professional partners, professional engineers who provide technical expertise on EWB projects, were in attendance. For Greg Lank, a professional partner for EWB's South Africa project, it was his third time attending the Dessert Reception. As a self-described long time supporter of EWB, Lank finds it to be worthwhile.

"What I find fascinating is the work done in country is the purpose why all of us do [EWB] but it's all the side effects that play the bigger role," Lank said. "There's an educational component that I think is stronger than the actual work being done itself."

Some of EWB's sponsors, such as Vince Nesline of Towson's Rotary Club, were also in attendance.

"We're here to learn how we can help in the future," Nesline said.

David Mongan, the ASCE Representative on the EWB-USA Board of Directors, gave the opening talk of the evening. The past ASCE president gave a brief overview of the history and growth of EWB then discussed the necessity of sustainability in EWB projects, in particular economic and cultural sustainability.

"Do no harm," Mongan said.

Mongan emphasized that projects must be selected to address needs that communities deem to be priorities and not what outsiders view to be priorities.

Later in the evening, the student leaders of each of the three EWB projects — Ecuador, Guatemala and South Africa — gave presentations on the status of their projects.

The Ecuador Project consisted of constructing a daycare center for Santa Rosa de Ayora, an indigenous community in Ecuador. Junior German Om, co-leader of the project, discussed how the community had explained their need for the daycare center. The previous school building was a single room and made teaching students of different levels difficult.

"They ate their papers," Om said one of the community residents told his team.

This past Winter Break, Om and his team traveled to Ecuador to begin construction of the daycare center. As of this past Sunday, the foundation and walls of the building were complete and construction of the roof was to commence.

The Guatemala Project consisted of the construction of a piping system to gather water out of a ravine to the community of Chicorral, Guatemala. Team leader senior Fabio Palacio and team member sophomore Clea Baumhofer talked about the difficulties they encountered on their trip to the community this past Winter Break.

Intending to begin construction on the piping system, the EWB team encountered difficulties with division within the community on how to finance the maintenance of the system. Fortunately, the mayor of the community agreed to finance the maintenance and the team was able to restart their work. However, after further discussions with the community, the team is looking to revamp their design.

The South Africa project consisted of the construction of ram pumps to irrigate rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. Although construction was completed a few years ago, the team visited the community in August 2011 to assess the status of the ram pumps and to assist in education and maintenance of it.

For project co-leader, sophomore Pujan Desai, the experience taught him what EWB is truly about.

"It's not just the business of building these pumps or of applying engineering to helping these people," Desai said. "It's showing these very disadvantaged people they can help themselves."