Engineers without Borders

   Our speakers this week were Carly Coligan, the President of the Carroll College chapter of Engineers Without Borders Chapter, and John Sharf, P.E., their faculty advisor. They shared information about their projects in Mexico, Guatemala, and St. Lucia. EWB-USA is an international, non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in developing countries through sustainable engineering projects. The Carroll College chapter includes students from many disciplines besides engineering. Carly is a nursing major, for example. She joined EWB because she has a strong desire to participate in international service projects. Carly was a member of an Interact Club in High School, and looks forward to getting involved with Rotary again in the future.
   Over the past eight years, CC-EWB members have established a strong and enduring relationship with the Santa Maria del Mexicana Orphanage near Colon, Mexico. There are currently two CC-EWB projects at Santa Maria. The first project was a waste-water treatment system that allows the orphanage to clean its waste-water. The second project was the development of a mile-long pipeline from a nearby reservoir to five local spice fields.  By selling locally-grown crops/spices, the orphanage is able to pay for more of its kids to go to college. The next step was to install sprinklers and drip irrigation in the various fields.
CC-EWB is currently working to reinforce the structures at La Asunción, the local school in Santo Tomás La Union, Guatemala. In the event of an earthquake, the prior to reinforcement, the buildings were at a very high risk of collapsing.
  CC-EWB’s first trip to St. Lucia in January 2015 was an assessment trip. The goal was to ascertain the problems with the Marian Home's water system and then draft alternative designs based upon observations made on trip as well as community input. Future trips will involve the implementation of our improved system as well as monitoring of it.
Engineers without Borders will be Rotary Club of Helena’s partner in Trivia Night on April 21st at the Staggering Ox. The event starts at 6:00 PM, and will raise funds for Engineers without Borders and our Club’s charitable activities.