May 18, 2016

Special guest speaker, Katie Chambers with  Engineers Without Borders  (EWB) Katie is a 4th year student at Cal Poly graduating this spring and will be continuing her studies in Boulder Colorado in the fall.  

 

EWB has four international projects in Thailand, India, Nicaragua and Malawi, plus a local project in Paso Robles. They are working towards improving sanitation in India, providing food storage and safer bridges Thailand, building a public school Nicaragua, and creating a bike powered maize mill in Malawi.  The local project is to build an eco-friendly restroom for Camp Natoma, which is part of Camp Fire USA.

 

The club was founded in 2005 and has over 200 members spanning all 6 colleges at Cal Poly.  Awards they have received West Coast Region Premier Student club 2015 and in 2012 project Malawi, which they have been involved with since 2005.  The Malawi project they have been working in the community of Kumponda since 2013.  All of the projects that do teaches the community how to use what they already have to grow food security, water accessibility, and nearby healthcare. 

 

The Nicaragua team has been working with one community for the last 10 years on a water system and distribution.  They are now moving to a new community Cuajachillo where they will be designing a water and distribution system as the people spend most of their day fetching water.

 

The India team is working on a 4 stage santation system.

 

Malawi team is designing a bicycle power maize mill, working on a compost system, along with working on their healthcare system

 

Camp Natoma team is designing an efficient restroom.  The camp is used for kids k - 12 and the impact of the project is school wide.