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WHO WE ARE
Engineers Without Borders - USA allows engineers and aspiring engineering students around the country to use their education and skills in engineering design to provide humanitarian aid to communities around the world as well as gain professional educational opportunities for its members.
The University of Florida's chapter of Engineers Without Borders currently has three teams: domestic team, Nepal team and Peru team. We are the University of Florida's chapter of Engineers Without Borders Peru Team. We are currently in a five-year partnership with the community of Maras Ayllu, Peru. Maras Ayllu is a small town in rural Peru located near the base of Machu Picchu. The community is currently facing both water storage and water quality issues which we will be assessing throughout our partnership.
WHAT WE DO
Engineers Without Borders - USA has chapters across the United States. Their mission statement is:
"EWB-USA supports community-driven development programs worldwide by collaborating with local partners to design and implement sustainable engineering projects, while creating transformative experiences and responsible leaders."
Our partnership with Maras Ayllu guides every aspect of our project. The community members identify the issues in the area they would like to solve, and we work with them to help bring the solution to fruition. We travel to the community once a year to implement our projects and assess the community for future projects. During each assessment trip, our team collects quantitative data and conducts informal community surveys to better understand the community's needs. By designing projects that have strong community support and input and by teaching the appropriate community members how to maintain the implemented projects, we help to ensure that Maras Ayllu becomes increasingly self-sufficient and that the progress achieved is long-term.
In May 2018, we installed an antibacterial/antimicrobial basin for the community's elementary school, Virgen del Carmen, to store drinking water in. The new basin provides up to 1100 liters of clean drinking water for the school's children and faculty throughout the day when running water is not available. We also restored the water supply to one of the school's classroom buildings which previously had no running water. We did this by connecting an existing public water line to an existing underground storage tank located in the school's courtyard and then using that underground tank to supply water to the classroom building.
Since Fall 2019, we have been designing the expansion of an irrigation reservoir that will provide irrigation water to miles of farmland in Maras Ayllu and will provide food and income to over 65 families in the community. Learn more about our work in Peru under our Projects tab.
Our team collaborates with Crescendos Alliance to design humanitarian projects through our engineering skills. Crescendos Alliance is a nongovernmental organization of medical anthropologists determined to improve the quality of life in remote, rural settings and has previously worked with the community of Maras Ayllu to alleviate health issues. They have also connected our team with community members and leaders.
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