Massive, Small Change

Many people in our world face severe challenges just to live and get by each day, though we may not see them around in our privileged lives as students at university. Engineers Without Borders UK is a charitable organisation that believes access to engineering and technical know-how can help overcome many of these challenges.

Our work aims to demonstrate the link between engineering and humanity, a connection that is often neglected in our education and in practice.

EWB Imperial, a branch of EWB UK, is a well-established society providing opportunities for Imperial students, local school children and our international partners. We are a gathering of environmentally and socially conscious engineers and non-engineers, engaging in meaningful projects which create Massive Small Change both locally and abroad.

Now at Imperial, there are a plethora of different ways to get involved with International Development (ID), with groups focussing on fundraising and awareness such as UNICEF-Imperial and Imperial Hub, as well as others preparing and organising teams of volunteers to go around the world to help out first-hand in critical areas, such as EWB-Imperial, Raincatcher, Kenyan Orphan Project, e.quinox, and Water Brigades.

The challenges faced during ID projects are quite different from any you might experience on your course. One must observe, interact and consult with all the local stakeholders to gain a complete understanding of the barriers to development.

Many engineers are able to work through the technical aspects of a project, however only a handful have the range of skills necessary to overcome linguistic, political and practical obstacles and create positive change.

These skills are highly transferrable to a working environment, and have enabled previous EWB members as well as those from other ID societies to make a bright start to their chosen careers. Many employers hold application processes which look for people who will be responsible and have indicated their commitment beyond involvement in technical projects.

To this end, EWB Imperial is running a programme of scenario-based workshops called “Leadership for Development” (LfD) in partnership with Imperial Hub. Running for the 3rd consecutive year since their inception, these sessions are given by experienced researchers and professional engineers, to help you acquire the tools to finance, plan and deliver a successful overseas project. Imperial Horizons also run the EWB Challenge for 2nd years, covering similar themes to LfD, and culminating in a design submission to the National competition.

The 3rd LfD talk of the season has now taken place – “Cross-Cultural Communication” with Ruth Fuller, a volunteer with EWB-UK. In previous weeks, students across the College have attended our introductory session-come-mingle “What is International Development?” with Louise Bloom from the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University, and our next talk, which was matter-of-factly titled “Fundraising” with Abi Taylor from Student Hubs.

There are still seven more LfD talks lined up for this academic year. Next week on 13th November, we are welcoming Doug Harper, the CEO of EWB-UK no less, to host a debate on what Effective Aid really is (for example: does sending your old shoes or clothes to developing countries actually help address the problems they face?) Following this, on 27th November we have representatives from Black & Veatch, a global infrastructure and engineering company, visiting us to speak about “Project Management & Sustainability” in an ID context.

You shouldn’t fear having missed out on these past sessions (and past years’). Every talk has been documented on our dedicated blog including pictures and full presentation slides.

_The next talk starts at 6pm in ACEX LT2 on Thursday, 13th November. _