Questions Questions Questions

Have some general questions about what EWB is all about? Here are some classic questions and their response. If you have more specific questions, let me know and I will answer them as best as I can.

What is Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Canada?

EWB is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to human development. The goal is to ensure that people in developing countries have access to the technology they need to improve their lives and opportunies. EWB works overseas with partner organizations in local government, NGOs and other community development projects. In Canada we address our goals by building awareness and encouraging change at the individual, corporate and government level.

What kind of work does EWB do overseas?

Engineers Without Borders sends both long term and short term volunteers to work with established organizations to build their capacity in the rural sector in primarily the areas of water and sanitation, food production and processing, and energy. EWB parnters with these organizations through long term volunteers (LTOVs) and short term volunteers. LTVOs spend a minimum of 1 year in a community working on understanding a project in order to have a positive impact. Short term volunteers, or Junior Fellows (JFs, that's what I am), are university students who spend 4 months working on similiar projects to the LTOVs. EWB works mainly in rural Africa in Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Zambia and Malawi.

What does EWB do in Canada?

In Canada, EWB works to ensure Canada is a role model among 'developed' nations in development - reducing the barriers facing developing countries that exist from our own policies and actions. This is done through:

• encouraging change in individual actions through public outreach and advocacy and school outreach
• corporate practices through corporate engagement and engineering curriculum enhancement
• government policies and actions through public outreach/awareness, petitions and advocacy, and direct engagement on development topics

An example of some of the things that have been done at the Guelph Chapter:

-high school outreach presentations on topics "Food for Thought" "Energy Matters" and "Water for the World"

-GROW highschool conference on international development

-Bill C-923 in canadian foreign policiy

-Promotion and education of Fair Trade

-creating the foundations for the curriculum enhancement at the School of Engineering and corporate outreach

-weekly education sessions on anything from workshops on the root causes of poverty to speakers on the role of engineers in appropriate design overseas.