Two non-profit engineering organizations made up of thousands of volunteer industry professionals, students and others (Engineers Without Borders USA and Engineering World Health) have combined operations to strengthen their capacity to build infrastructure in poor global communities. resources
Founded in 2002 by a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, EWB-USA has grown from a handful of engineers who installed a waterfall-fed clean water system for 950 Mayan Indians from Belize to 14,000 volunteers working on 350 engineering projects worldwide. balloon More than 5 million people worldwide have been affected by their efforts, according to the organization’s website. Volunteer engineers and biomedical professionals working with EWH have installed and repaired life-saving equipment in under-resourced hospitals in Asia, Africa and Latin America, providing more than $30 million in services since the organization’s inception organization in 2004.
According to Boris Martin, CEO of EWB-USA, the merger will integrate EWB’s biomedical team and technical training in EWB-USA’s sustainable infrastructure development in water supply, sanitation, energy, agriculture and other projects.
“During the pandemic it became clear that the state of health care in some of the communities [where EWB-USA operates] it’s really poor,” Martin said in an interview, noting that that realization led to conversations between the two groups about how to leverage more expertise in installing and repairing life-saving equipment in the U.S. and internationally to build sustainable communities.
“The holistic practice of engineering is at the core of what we do [and] integrating EWH into our work helps us trigger the shift in perspective from ‘I’m here to build a water system’ to ‘I’m here to improve the health outcomes of a community,’ he says.
Most recently, EWB-USA has supported American communities that could benefit from funding through the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act, but lack the resources to apply for support.
“We do the pre-engineering reports pro bono,” says Martin. “We’ve identified that so many communities don’t have access to the engineering they need to design what can improve them. This is where the engineering profession has a mandate to give back.”
