Our chapter’s three International Projects are centered around water relief in communities located in South America and Africa. These projects typically take place over Winter and Summer breaks, but are subject to change depending on the state of the country we would be visiting.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, our International Projects were put on hold. We were lucky enough to resume our project in Bolivia in August of 2022 after being unable to travel since August of 2019. Our project in Kaliro, Uganda had wrapped up right before the pandemic and we have since adopted a new project in Bubogo, Uganda.
Continue reading to learn about our individual International Projects!
AZACILO, BOLIVIA
We have worked in the mountain community of Azacilo the longest out of all our international projects, with our work beginning in 2008 with the inception of our chapter. The project started out as building eco-latrines (baños) for each household in the community. Following the completion of the baños, our work in Azacilo shifted to building solar-heated showers on top of the baños we built. We were able to resume this project in August of 2022 after not being in the community since 2019. However, during our time away from the community, we tried a remote implementation of a solar shower. This means we ordered and sent the parts needed to build a solar shower to the community for them to build. We were able to see the shower crafted from this experiment, and were thrilled to see it was well put together and working! During our most recent trip, we built three new showers and repaired four, leaving the community with seven working showers. Our work in Azacilo is expected to come to a close in the next year, with only six more showers needing to be built.
COLANI, BOLIVIA
Our time in Colani began in 2014 after we were approached by members of the community after they saw the services we were providing in Azacilo. (Colani is about a 15 minute walk from Azacilo.) Our first project was to provide an agricultural water distribution system to the community. We did this by constructing a spring box higher on the mountain to collect rain water, and then piecing together a system of pipes to carry water from the box down to the community. Our current project of building the baños we provided Azacilo began in 2018 and is expected to continue for years to come. On our last trip to the community, we completed one new bano and repaired two, leaving the community with three working baños. We also learned there was a member of the community who built his own baño in our absence, which is very promising! Going forward, our main goals are to find ways to reduce the cost of the parts and to find more efficient ways to build baños while in the community.
BUBOGO, UGANDA
Our project is to provide the community of Bubogo, Uganda with a clean and reliable source of water that is safe to access. Having to postpone the trip due to travel restrictions, our team of five students and one mentor will travel to Bubogo over this upcoming Spring Break on an assessment trip. While there, the team will partake in community meetings and plans to complete a hydrological survey, map the site, and learn about material accessibility. We are very excited to work with the community and break ground on this new project!
MORE COMING SOON!
Engineers Without Borders: University of Kansas 