EWB-UK Annual Review 2011

Annual Review2011

10 Years. 10 Stories.

2 | EWB-UK Annual Review 2011

Welcome

EWB-UK Annual Review 2011 | 3

Ten years ago, in late 2001, a small group of engineering students decided to form a new student society called Engineers Without Borders. They wanted to fight poverty. They wanted to put their engineering expertise to good use. They wanted to change the priorities of their profession. They wanted to learn about sustainable technologies, about working with people and about other countries and contexts.

Because these ideas inspired and because their motivations resonated, this small group started what has become a massive movement for change; everyone who has joined has done so because they have been able to identify with the cause.

So the story of Engineers Without Borders UK is the story of its members. For this Annual Review, we have decided to put our statistics aside, and to tell stories about the journeys of ten members from over the last ten years. We feel that their achievements best demonstrate our achievements, and that their experiences show the breadth of our impact in the UK and in developing countries.

There are so many exciting stories to tell, and we don’t have space for them all here. We haven’t been able to tell you about Tariq Khokhar who did an EWB-UK placement with ICT organisation Aptivate in 2004, went to work for them and is now working for the World Bank as an open data evangelist promoting the IATI standard. We haven’t been able to tell you about Gareth Lewis who did an EWB-UK placement in South Africa, then managed our whole Placements Programme in 2007/8 and who is now in Haiti as a structural engineer working on shelter programmes. Nor about Claire Grisaffi, who after being one of the first ever EWB-UK placement volunteers, left university, became a chartered engineer, and is now a water and sanitation programme manager at Concern Worldwide. We wanted to tell you about Patricia Steven who worked with our Education Programme to establish an integrated lecture series at Imperial College, ran an outreach workshop at the 21st World Scout Jamboree (attended by 40,000 scouts from 158 countries) and who now works for a leading engineering firm. And about Chris Cleaver who volunteered in his final year at university as our co-Chief Executive and has now set up a company in Kenya producing briquettes from waste charcoal dust.

We have chosen ten stories that say something about how our hundreds of volunteers and thousands of members become empowered to make a difference in the wider world. Together, they represent a new generation of engineers whose passion, expertise, imagination, commitment and leadership have already helped many thousands of people overcome barriers to development. They will go on to help many more during their engineering careers, creating opportunities for millions of people in the years and decades to come.

Thank you to all of our partners, sponsors, donors, trainers, academics, advisors and friendsfor supporting the cause and for making these journeys possible.

Many thanks to Joanne Beale (words) and Emily Nix (design)for creating this Annual Review.


Steven Hunt2003

Four years after graduating from the University of Glasgow in Product Design Engineering, Steven left his job with a technology development company for a placement with EWB-UK on Slum Networking at the Alang Shipbreaking Yards in India. Shortly afterwards, he also did a part-time placement with Shelter Centre in Cambridge looking at emergency shelter, which led on to a job in small wind turbines with XCO2. A year later, Steven started a Masters in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge. At the same time joined the National Executive of EWB-UK, establishing the Professional Network as a community of professionals, academics and practitioners.

“Getting the EWB-UK placement literally changed my life. It gave me the opportunity to step out of the ‘normal’ career path producing disposable products for induced ‘wants’, and gave me the chance to start trying to apply my skills to real human needs. It’s opened me up to a whole world of people and places.”

Steven soon got a job as an energy specialist for Practical Action Consulting focusing on energy access in developing countries around the world – from cook stoves to treadle pumps, from Madagascar to Azerbaijan. Steven also served as a trustee of EWB-UK for two years during which time he established a series of collaborations with Practical Action, including a partnership on a series of placements for EWB-UK members. It has been a great success, with volunteers making great and diverse contributions to Practical Action while gaining experience of working in development. He’s also been involved with providing briefs for the Research Programme and is a speaker for the Training Programme.

Then the idea of the Small is… Festival was hatched.

“I worked with the EWB-UK Training Manager, the second EWB-UK / Practical Action intern and with

Practical Action colleagues to develop the Small is... Festival. Over 1,000 people have attended, engaging in debates, workshops, networking and activities on the role of technology in development. The event could not happen without the strong partnership between Practical Action and EWB-UK and it’s a natural win-win – the kind we need to find more of.”

Steven has taken up the role of international energy co-ordinator at Practical Action, and is also currently seconded part time to the UK Department for International Development as Energy Advisor. At DFID, Steven is developing a new results-based incentive system to accelerate off-grid energy markets for products accessible to poor people in developing countries – hopefully creating the incentives for more innovators and entrepreneurs to apply themselves to the issue of energy poverty.

“It’s a busy and crazy time at the moment, juggling two really interesting but intense roles – as well as being a new father! But the can-do-ism and enthusiasm for the mission of helping people via technology - which EWB-UK has at its core - is something that always stays with me.”

Most memorable moment“In 2004, EWB Cambridge organised a talk from Gapminder that I went along to. They were still getting started, but already doing something amazing that changes the way you look at the world – very EWB! Gapminder is really famous now...”


Louise Bloom2003


Louise heard about EWB-UK in a lecture at the University of Cambridge in her first year as an engineering undergraduate. She signed up, and in her second year she took on the EWB Cambridge committee role of Training Co-ordinator, organising lots of events and courses. This led to her taking up the National Executive Training Co-ordinator role for the last two years of her degree. This involved many weekends at Clare Farm, trips to the Centre for Alternative Technology and visits to the facilities at Cranfield University.

Louise then became the first full time member of staff for EWB-UK, following funding received from the UK Department for International Development. Her six months as the Interim Training and Research Manager got the project well underway, and established the culture of EWB-UK’s staff and their equal status to its volunteers.

“There was a real demand for training and it was fantastic to try out new things to meet that demand. Feedback was always positive and people loved our hands-on approach – everyone valued it and enjoyed themselves so much that all of our trainers gave us their time for free. It was really exciting to work in the EWB-UK office and there was so much going on by then that it was vital step forward. The training events were important for raising awareness, and more than that, so many placement volunteers used the skills they’d learned – it just all ties together really well.”

Louise was selected for a highly competitive internship with Save the Children specialising in logistics. As part of the internship she had the opportunity to work in Myanmar following Cyclone Nargis. It was shortly after this that the 2010 earthquake in Haiti saw her in the Dominican Republic where she set up the Save the Children office to distribute the materials coming in. During this time she was also a trustee of EWB-UK.

“Being on the Branch Committee and the National Executive was a great way of getting to know international development, and was an early opportunity to meet experienced professionals – which was so inspiring. It meant that I knew what to expect from the internship with Save the Children. I used knowledge I’d gained from EWB-UK in getting the job. After the earthquake in Haiti we were working really long days – and there were so many organisations trying to work there that everyone was short staffed. After setting up the office I co-ordinated health and nutrition work in Haiti, managing and tracking medicines and foods and setting up pharmacies for the camps. I used a lot of my engineering skills.”

Louise now works for Oxfam GB in Oxford overseeing their logistics processes. She spends about 20% of her time overseas.

“One of the things I do is train partner organisations – a nice closed loop with where I started on this journey.”

Most memorable moment“Visiting one of our placements whilst travelling in Ecuador and seeing first-hand the benefit the students’ work was bringing. And they were using the training I’d organised!”


Charles Bennett2004


Whilst on an industrial placement year during his degree, the Indian Ocean tsunami started Charles thinking about how his engineering background could be used to help communities in developing countries. Charles found out about EWB-UK and took part in the Clare Farm training course. Charles joined the committee of EWB Cardiff and also took a role assisting the national placements team in identifying and developing future placement opportunities. The following year, Charles became the co-President of EWB Cardiff and helped to initiate a number of new activities that greatly boosted the membership. When Charles graduated he joined Arup in their Bristol office. Charles acted as the co-ordinator between Arup and EWB-UK, facilitating a number of joint activities between Arup staff and EWB-UK members.

“A highlight of the Arup and EWB-UK collaboration was the creation and delivery of a workshop on shelter design and co-ordination. With input from ten Arup colleagues, we developed a day-long workshop that was first delivered at the 2008 EWB-UK National Conference. The workshop was subsequently used by a number of Arup offices around the world and on EWB-UK training courses across the country. It was fantastic to witness the energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of EWB-UK members as they worked in small teams under pressure to deliver and present solutions to real-life problems.”

In 2009, Charles spent five months in Papua New Guinea working as a volunteer water and sanitation engineer with Oxfam for which he won an EWB-UK bursary. The aim of the project was to improve health in a number of remote communities through the delivery of improved access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene education.

“Working in Papua New Guinea was an amazing experience, bringing safe drinking water and improved sanitation to some of the most remote communities in the world.

The support from the EWB-UK bursary was really fantastic and enabled me to take this great opportunity.”

Charles now works for Parsons Brinckerhoff as an Environmental Engineer. He is currently in their water team, working on a range of projects across all sectors including energy, transport and water resource management. Charles also volunteers for Frank Water providing technical support to water projects in India and creating links with universities.

“Having gained experience of working overseas with Oxfam, I am keen to stay in touch with the world of water engineering in a community development context whilst I continue my professional development as an engineer in the UK. Continuing my involvement with EWB-UK is a great way of meeting and staying in contact with others who share an interest in the role of engineering in improving the lives of people around the world.”

Most memorable moment“Helping to create and deliver a shelter training workshop to over 150 participants at the EWB-UK National Conference.”



Yoke Pean Thye2005

Yoke came to the UK from Singapore to study engineering at Imperial. Having previously done a book-keeping course she volunteered as treasurer at EWB Imperial and chaired the Imperial bursary panel. In second year, Yoke applied for an EWB-UK placement with Shelter Centre and spent the summer developing camp planning guidelines that are now being used across the global disaster relief community.

“The roles with EWB Imperial were a real learning experience for me, and really valuable as an international student. As part of the bursary panel, we worked with engineers from the Professional Network and we learned a lot from them. And after my placement at Shelter Centre, I was pretty clear that I wanted to do work that made a big difference.”

In Yoke’s third year she became EWB-UK’s national Bursaries Co-ordinator and extended the scheme to fund training and conference fees. And in her final year, she became Finance Co-ordinator. Managing all the finances of a rapidly growing international charity is not easy, but Yoke presented financial reports to the board of trustees, remotely managed the part-time book-keeper in Cambridge and established EWB-UK’s first finance software.

“The biggest challenge on the finance side was interpretation: I had to find a way to translate all the data into information for the teams. It was a great experience to have that kind of responsibility, and I use some of the skills I learnt then inmy current job – I’ve progressed my career much faster.”

Meanwhile, Yoke also undertook a research project for her MEng thesis.

“I wanted to do a water and sanitation project so I found a supervisor who was happy to support me with an EWB-UK project, which was proposed by Practical Action. I studied their work in Bangladesh and created a decision-making tool to choose an appropriate method of emptying pit latrines. I presented my research at the EWB-UK Research Conference and also had the paper published in a journal called ‘Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology’.”

After she graduated, Yoke moved back to Singapore and found an opening at the Lien Foundation / Nanyang Technological University ‘Environmental Endeavour’ project. It is one of very few development organisations in Singapore and they do great work building the capacity of academics from countries across Asia and helping them to improve water and sanitation in their own communities. Yoke manages the international programme and is currently overseeing and supporting projects in Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

“I’m just about to go out to Myanmar – we’re working with eight communities with very unique cultures in floating settlements. On this trip we are taking some of the students from the university here to share skills with some of the students in Myanmar, in areas such as water quality testing. I’m really excited to be involved with this kind of work and am really grateful for the experience I gained with EWB-UK that has helped me to get to this point.”


Most memorable moment“Being invited to sit in an experts group meeting on pit latrines in Zurich. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to learn from a distinguished group of experienced practitioners.”

Joe Mulligan2005


Joe’s first involvement was as a volunteer on one of the first year-long placements in the isolated Dadiya Tribal Lands in north-eastern Nigeria. Sustained increases in funding from Anglo American made such activities possible. The project was to develop a rural access road in partnership with local community groups, which involved stakeholder consultation, surveying, planning, design and construction - and negotiating local, state and federal government support and fundraising over £40,000.

“The year in Nigeria was an unforgettable experience, full of challenges and new experiences. It was very formative personally and professionally, especially some of the difficult times and poor outcomes. In particular the failure of a river crossing was a lesson in the challenges and responsibilities of engineering and community development projects for us and for EWB-UK. EWB-UK has done well from learning from this failure.”

After returning from Dadiya Joe completed a Masters in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge and joined the National Executive of EWB-UK focusing on the charity’s publicity strategy. He stayed in close contact with the Nigeria project, returning to Dadiya after a failure of the river crossing and much later, with a bursary, to assess the impact of the partnership.

“Returning to Dadiya after the project ended, I was struck by what a positive impact the nine EWB-UK volunteers had had there over the four years of the project, despite all the ups and downs and challenges of living and working in Dadiya.For the volunteers, Dadiya has been an unforgettable place to live; for Dadiyans, in addition to the projects completed, the fact that volunteers had shared their skills and lives with people in such an isolated community and with so much solidarity and openness was immense.”

Joe started work at Buro Happold’s New York office. He has been working as an infrastructure consultant for their sustainability and infrastructure teams on master planning projects in diverse locations and contexts from Mumbai to Moscow and from Rwanda to the Middle East. He has stayed involved with development work by co-ordinating activities in the New York office, and as an apprentice to Institution of Civil Engineers President Paul Jowitt on his ‘Toolkit for a Developing World’. Joe has also been centrally involved in a company-supported project in Kenya with the Kounkuey Design Initiative that develops productive public spaces through participatory design processes in Nairobi’s largest slum, Kibera. This project has recently partnered with the EWB-UK placement scheme and RedR Future Relief Workers Scheme.

“A lot of my professional and personal interests have built on the EWB-UK-supported experiences I’ve been so lucky to have in Nigeria and Kenya. Being involved with a number of EWB groups worldwide since coming to the US, particularly with EWB-USA, has shown me of how potent some of the fundamental ideas and ideals behind the EWB movement are - and also what a unique and valuable contribution EWB-UK is making at home and abroad.”

Most memorable moment“Completing a compressed earth block composting toilet and having access to a toilet for the first time in six months!”


Ian Baggs2007


Ian discovered EWB-UK whilst at university at Bristol reading Civil Engineering. He had spent his gap year in Mexico teaching English in a rural part of the country and EWB-UK appealed to him because it felt like a constructive way to use the engineering skills he was gaining in the context that he had experienced in Mexico.

“At sixteen I wanted to study medicine when my physics teacher presented me with an article stating that in the early stages of a disaster engineers can save more lives than medics – that’s what sparked my interest in engineering. When I got to university there were so many talks on at lunchtimes but the titles of the EWB-UK talks really caught my attention. I was really excited about the prospect of doing some training courses whilst I was at university and even more so about the placement opportunities.”

In his final year Ian became President of EWB Bristol. In that year the membership doubled to 250+ members and there was an active committee of around 25 students. This enabled the branch to try new things and they had the capacity to run big events. One such event was the annual EWB-UK National Conference, which was held in a city for the first time. Ian and his committee were instrumental in securing the support of the engineering department and the conference was a huge success, with students coming from all over the country to Bristol for talks, workshops and training. Ian went on to be a successful applicant for a placement to spend six months in Ecuador.

“I actually ended up staying for a year in Ecuador. It was the first opportunity I had to put some of my engineering teaching into practice on a real infrastructure project. We were building gravity-fed water systems in the jungle. It was so incredibly rewarding.”

Ian now works for engineering consultancy MWH in the UK, who sponsored him to go to Uganda

on another EWB-UK placement for three months under the RedR Future Relief Workers Scheme. He has shared his knowledge and experience by helping at the Pre-Departure Course, giving talks at MWH and EWB branches and assisting with staff recruitment for EWB-UK.

“Uganda was a real eye-opener; being out in the bush digging wells under the hot African sun was both fun and challenging. I’m now back in the office and working on a water supply contract, getting chartered and I’m also now an affiliate of RedR. The Future Relief Workers Scheme is enabling me to attend some RedR training courses – I’ve just done one on security in the field – and I would love to gain more experience and one day become a full member.”

Most memorable moment“Sinking the last culvert in a 30ft-deep shallow well in Uganda.”


Joanne Beale2008


In 2008, Joanne was awarded an EWB-UK bursary in order to study rural waste management in Bhutan for three months, for her final year research project at Cambridge University. She then volunteered to chair a new bursary panel in Cambridge to assess future applications.

“The bursary gave me my first experience actually working overseas, and it was great to know my ideas had been endorsed. I wanted to help others do the same and, as a student, becoming a development donor on the panel was a really interesting experience. I thought a lot about what makes ‘good’ development.”

Joanne also got involved in EWB Cambridge, and helped to organise water and sanitation events in partnership with Mott MacDonald. Another highlight was her ‘Go Vegan’ challenge in which 30 students adhered to a vegan diet for one month to raise awareness of land, food and resource issues – and fundraised over £3,000.

After finishing her Masters degree in engineering, Joanne volunteered for the role of Bursaries Co-ordinator on the National Executive of EWB-UK. Over the next two years she consolidated the scheme, creating new bursary panels and awarding seventy bursaries totalling over £20,000. She managed the team, plans and budget, oversaw the whole bursary process and reported to its main donors – the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and Barclays Capital. She helped to write EWB-UK’s Good Practice Guidelines (now part of EWB-UK’s strategy) and started developing ideas for a new ‘Innovation Hub’.

“It was a privilege to be able to make a difference, to do something I feel passionate about, whilst learning so many new skills. It was a huge learning curve – management, public speaking, networking. In those two years I was also working in Mozambique and for RedR in London, and it was

astonishing to find links with EWB-UK wherever I went.”

Joanne started work at Buro Happold in September 2010 as a graduate in their sustainability team, and is currently part of a small team working on a city-wide masterplan for Dar es Salaam where she is responsible for water and sanitation aspects. Her experiences in development are invaluable in making the engineering relevant to the context of Tanzania, and make her a vital member of the company’s team. She is also one of three engineers leading their International Development Community, providing staff with opportunities in development work and promoting the company’s expertise. Joanne supports Buro Happold’s work with the RedR Future Relief Workers Scheme, which helps staff to become relief workers by gaining field experience on EWB-UK placements.

“I wanted to work for Buro Happold because of their support for EWB-UK and I think they appreciate the skills I bring from my involvement. I’ve become an ‘EWB-UK Champion’, a new EWB-UK scheme that helps the company and my colleagues engage more closely. I’ve also been asked to support the Education Programme by becoming a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting lecturer at Coventry University. The support network that I have gained through EWB-UK and the example of older members have been such an encouragement to me in getting to this stage of my career and I’m excited to see where it takes me next.”

Most memorable moment“Setting up a water pump training course at Clare Farm in pouring rain with lots of mud, sledgehammers, tents, big holes and biscuits...”


Emily Nix2008



Emily got to hear about EWB-UK by taking part in the RedR ‘So you think you want to be a relief worker?’ course as part of her Royal Academy of Engineering leadership award. She then quickly got involved in EWB Sheffield and took the role of School Outreach Co-ordinator. In this role she liaised with Arup in Leeds to run ‘Water for the World’ workshops. Emily then took part in an exchange programme and travelled to Canada to complete her third year of university. There, she got actively involved with EWB Canada and was awarded a bursary from EWB-UK enabling her to travel across Canada to attend their National Conference.

“By attending the EWB Canada National Conference, my eyes were opened to how much potential we as students and professionals have in making a real difference for positive change. Being able to share my passions with individuals from across the Atlantic was an amazing opportunity. One of the key ideas was to dream big and my big dream from the conference was to take what I had learnt to share with EWB-UK.”

After returning from Canada, Emily took part in the first EWB-UK summer school at the Centre for Science and Environment in India. She had the opportunity to engage with a wide range of invited speakers and to gain hands-on experience on field trips whilst learning about the delicate balance of rapid development and environmental impact. On returning to Sheffield, Emily took up the role of Branch President where she established new training for the branch, worked with the Education Programme to get more global issues into the university’s engineering courses and established a staff-EWB committee.

Emily also organised an EWB Sheffield Showcase event which attracted 200 students, industry representatives and academics. It was a spectacular and vibrant evening that impressed everyone

and helped to forge new, valuable links. As a result, the faculty took up the EWB Challenge for all its first year engineers.

“We were awarded Society of the Year and three further awards at the Sheffield Students’ Union’s Activity Awards, as well as Best Campaign Award at the Union’s Educational Awards. Being able to work with a group of fellow students with similar passions, and then realising those passions together, was an amazing experience. EWB-UK provides a network of opportunities to meet and work with like-minded individuals towards positive impact.”

After graduating from the University of Sheffield, Emily spent her summer eveloping support material for the Global Engineering Challenge Week (which encompasses the EWB Challenge) for all first year engineers at the university. She then moved to Austria and now is working at Graz University of Technology in their International Sustainability Partnerships department, which is also home to the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance. Here, Emily is developing projects with a number of stakeholders across Europe focusing on renewable energy and energy sustainability.

“Being involved in EWB-UK has given me the ability to realise new ventures and without it I would have never gotten involved with EWB Canada in my exchange year to make the links there or found this position in Austria. EWB-UK opens doors and provides individuals with lifetime experiences – and it is ultimately about being part of something bigger and knowing that you’ve done something to contribute.”

Most memorable moment“Getting stuck on a road in the Himalayas due to a landslide (after a field trip as part of an EWB-UK Summer School) and waiting for them to dynamite the way back through.”


Sam Williamson2009

Sam didn’t know about EWB-UK throughout his undergraduate years at Cranfield University, where he studied aircraft engineering. He joined a consultancy and a little later started planning a sabbatical in Nepal, after enjoying some travelling there. He was working for a development organisation when he met some EWB-UK placement volunteers and offered to help them with their work, with sorting out visas and with getting to know Kathmandu and the local language. Sam knew a little about what they were trying to achieve because his sister, Mary, had just begun an EWB-UK placement on wind turbines in the Philippines.

Whilst in Nepal, Sam learned about the benefits of pico-hydropower and decided to take a career change. He discovered that the University of Bristol was offering a PhD research position in partnership with EWB-UK and Renishaw PLC on the design and manufacture of pico-hydro devices. He applied straight away, and did a telephone interview from Nepal.

“I found out I had been offered the PhD whilst visiting a cluster of pico-hydro turbines in rural Nepal. I was really excited as this would let me study something that I really cared about and, with the involvement of EWB-UK, I knew I would have the opportunity to put the research into practice.”

Sam started the PhD in October 2009 on his return to the UK. For the first year he looked at the current technology available for pico-hydro turbines, developed a specification for a system and selected an appropriate turbine. Last year, Sam designed and built an experimental test rig for low-head pico hydro turbines as well as developing some theoretical models to predict the turbine behaviour.

“The day the turbine went in the experimental rig span was fantastic – I had spent six months designing and building the rig as well as modifying the hydro lab to install the rig. The hour and a half cleaning

up all the spilt water was definitely worth it! The rig proved that our concept could work.”

He presented his research at the EWB-UK Research Conference in 2010 and in 2011, and helped the Training Programme by giving talks about his work – such as speaking to the local Institution of Mechanical Engineers branch. One significant achievement was being awarded the best paper prize at the World Renewable Energy Congress in Sweden, in the Hydropower Applications category.

Sam is continuing his PhD, having recently started his third year. He is now working on improving the turbine design as well as looking at the electrical system that will provide a plug-and-play capability so that a number of turbines can be connected together. Every now and again, he takes time out to attend other EWB-UK activities and events, such as the Small is... Festival. As part of the partnership agreement with EWB-UK, Renishaw PLC is providing Sam with funding for a number of field trips and/or related Masters research projects. The company specifically asked for EWB-UK to be involved in the research so that they could be sure that the engineering innovation would be relevant to developing communities.

“I know the next eighteen months are going to be really hard work, but I’m really looking forward to them, and hopefully I’ll be able to test elements of the research in-situ.”


Most memorable mom ent“The moment the turbine first span on the experimental rig.”


Holly Geipel2010


Holly started attending meetings at EWB Exeter at the beginning of her first year studying maths at the University of Exeter and she quickly became involved in running outreach workshops. EWB Exeter have a strong relationship with four secondary schools and several primary schools in the local area and as well as running EWB-UK’s main ‘Water for the World’ and ‘Shelter for the World’ workshops they are also involved in a weekly after-school club at one nearby secondary school.

“Running these workshops changes teachers’ and students’ views on engineering. When we first asked them what an engineer was they would usually say that it was someone who mends cars. We’re helping them to see that engineering is all about problem solving. The Outreach Programme is all about helping people open their eyes to see what can be done through engineering and the difference it can make.”

During Holly’s first year at university the opportunity came up to participate in the EWB-UK summer school ‘Challenge of the Balance’ in India. She spent a month split between Delhi and the Himalayas studying Indian culture, the poverty gap in the country and the different ways of bridging the gap. On returning she got more involved in the Education Programme and has been instrumental in the relationship between EWB-UK and her university.

“The summer school is a brilliant introduction to international development. It was definitely the highlight to date of my involvement with EWB-UK. It also made realise the importance of raising awareness in the UK, as many people don’t appreciate the realities of the way most people live across the world. I would love to see the EWB Challenge become part of my university engineering syllabus and an EWB-UK module introduced.”

Holly’s first year at Exeter was as a maths student but this year she

changed to engineering after her involvement with EWB-UK and her experiences in India. She is also continuing to contribute to the national Outreach Team in the role of Outreach Festivals Co-ordinator; she is President of the Exeter branch and continues to work with her university as part of the Education Programme.

“I’d never been exposed to engineering at school and I didn’t even know you could take engineering as a degree. I’ve always wanted to do something where I could feel that I made a difference and EWB-UK showed me what was possible with engineering. I want to continue working in development and developing countries. I hope university will be the beginning of it not the end.”

Most memorable moment“Abseiling off the top of a building for the first time to raise funds for EWB-UK.”

Engineers Without Borders UK is aninternational development organisationthat removes barriers to development through engineering.

Our programmes provide opportunities for young people in the UK to learn about engineering’s role in tackling poverty.

We support partner organisations by providing them with young engineers to help them with their projects.

We have a vital network of branches at universities across the UK, where volunteers run events and activities for their members and communities.

Professional engineers get involved to lend their expertise to our work.

By taking part in our activities, our members are making a differenceto people’s lives around the world.

[email protected]

Engineers Without Borders UK is registered in England and Wales. Limited by guarantee.

Registered Company No.: 4856607.Registered Charity No.: 1101849.

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EWB-UK Annual Review 2011

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