Engineers Without Borders: SUNY-ESF Student Chapter

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1 Engineers Without Borders: SUNY-ESF Student Chapter dkjglksdjg 2014 Year Report SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

2 ABOUT ESF-EWB SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry s Engineers Without Borders Student Chapter (ESF- EWB) is a group of over eighty engineers, scientists, landscape architects and environmental scholars with an interest in international development. Group members devote their time and energy to help the chapter build sustainable infrastructure abroad while also increasing domestic awareness of the needs of people in the developing world. The rewards for these sacrifices will be threefold: joy when the project is completed, education on the principles of sustainable engineering design, and experience gained while working with fellow ESF-EWB members, professionals, and other student organizations and EWB chapters. TABLE OF CONTENTS About ESF-EWB 1 EWB-USA Mission 1 Letter from the President 2 ESF-EWB Officers and Mentors 2 Honduras 3 Guatemala 4 Sponsors and Collaborators 5 EWB-USA MISSION EWB-USA is a nonprofit humanitarian organization established to support community-driven development programs worldwide through partnerships that design and implement sustainable engineering projects, while creating transformative experiences that enrich global perspectives and create responsible leaders. Page 1

3 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT At SUNY-ESF, I often find myself in awe, entirely inspired and captured by the passion that drives the students around me. That passion that surrounds our campus becomes even stronger within our club, providing drive and motivation to better the world. Through engineering and the encompassing social practices, we are able to do just that; following the hurdles, struggles, and failures we are bound to experience given the nature of development projects. With our skillful mentors, leading advisors, and generous sponsors we have been successful in overcoming project challenges and have made significant progress in our projects in Honduras and Guatemala. The year marks the 11 th anniversary of the establishment of our organization, an impressive feat of student, faculty, and professional dedication to improving the world. I am excited to share this newsletter which showcases our club s work over the past year. I hope you enjoy the read and consider reaching out to us to learn more or how to support us in our projects. Sincerely, Thomas J. Decker President ESF-EWB OFFICERS AND MENTORS Thomas Decker Alex Caven Kurt Dirr Taylor Brown Becky Meissner President Treasurer Web Master Honduras Project Lead Tyler Pitts Jeremy Driscoll Kristina Macro Douglas Reymore Haley Canham Guatemala Project Leads Vice President USA Representative Report Editor Dr. Theodore Endreny PhD, PE, PH Faculty Advisor Mark Fabian MS, Past PCV Honduras Technical Mentor Page 2

4 HONDURAS ESF-ESS STUDENTS TRAVEL TO HONDURAS TO FINISH POTABLE WATER SUPPLY PROJECT BY TAYLOR BROWN In August 2014, students Thomas Decker and Taylor Brown were led by Professor Ted Endreny to Buena Vista, Honduras to continue a project that the ESF-ESS club has been working on since The purpose of the trip was to meet with the people in the community and their water board to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), evaluate any repairs the system needed, and to begin each of the eight tasks left before 100% completion. Before the project started, the community s source of water came from a precarious system of rubber hoses that were prone to leaks and contamination. The gravity-fed water filtration and distribution system implemented by ESS has provided approximately 45 families with a clean reliable source of water in their households for drinking, bathing, cooking and laundry. The project was designed to be sustainable, in that the people of the community, could eventually take full ownership of the system and be able to maintain the system without financial dependence on ESS. The community helped greatly during implementation and learned how the system works so that they could perform routine maintenance. The establishment of the water board was critical for the long-term success of the project. Giving people in the community leadership roles allows them to be mobilizers of their community and gives them a sense of pride. Another important factor to the success of this project is the partnership formed with the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Alfalit. They have helped maintain contact with the community, organized the purchase of materials and equipment, contracted labor, scheduled meetings, and carried out actual implementation. This project has faced many challenges, which has delayed completion. Delivering materials for implementation was difficult during the rainy seasons. Funding was also lost in 2009 when Honduras faced a coup d etat and the club needed to find alternate funding. After the trip this past August, the final funds were received by the community to finish the distribution system. As of October 2014, all tasks proposed in the MOU have been completed and the implementation phase of the project is finished. The next steps are to complete assessment of the project over the course of 2015, and to move forward with project closeout. Page 3

5 GUATEMALA COLLABORATION WITH THE SYRACUSE PROFESSIONAL EWB CHAPTER BY JEREMY DRISCOLL Beginning in May 2014, ESF-ESS began partnering with the Syracuse Professional Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) project in Guatemala. The club s mission is to improve health and quality of life in developing countries, through sustainable engineering practices. The specific goal for this project is to work with a community to improve sanitation and hygiene through improved latrines. An initial trip in May 2014, included discussing details of the project with community leaders and identifying a site for latrines. Our trip consisted of three professional engineers and four students, three of whom are ESF-ESS members. We traveled to Las Majadas, a community of 400 students and their families near the Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala. The water system in Las Majadas is unreliable, overall hygiene is inadequate, and sanitation principles are not well understood. We met with a Peace Corps volunteer and a health care worker, both working in Las Majadas, to help with translation and to gain a better understanding of the community s needs. The community already has composting toilets, but they are a very basic design and most are near the end of their useful life. The project aims to develop a latrine design that will last longer and be more hygienic to use. During our trip, we collected soil and surveying data at each location to better compare our three proposed toilet designs. We met with students, parents, and community leaders to get input on our designs to facilitate human centered design. We are currently working on an alternatives analysis for an ideal latrine design. We are excited to continue to work with the Syracuse Professional Chapter and the community of Las Majadas into the future. Page 4

6 SPONSORS AND COLLABORATORS HOW TO DONATE You can make a donation/sponsorship by check, which can be sent to: SUNY-ESF Cashier s Office 102 Bray Hall 1 Forestry Drive Syracuse, NY Sponsorship Categories Gold - $1,000 Silver - $500 Bronze - $250 Please make checks payable to SUNY-ESF with Engineers Without Borders in the memo As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all donations to ESF-EWB are tax deductible Page 5

7 Engineers Without Borders SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry For more information, please contact ESF-EWBSS at Find us on Facebook as SUNY ESF Engineers Without Borders Or check out our website at A special thank you to all our writers! Page 6