Fall, 2016Tufts University

Informational Pamphlet

Tufts Engineers Without Borders

EST. 2004

How to DonateVisit our website at http://ase.tufts.edu/ewb/donate to donate! Any amount will help fund future projects and truly make a difference in people’s lives.

Program CycleAssessment (1 year)Implementation (2 years)Monitoring (2 years)

Cost of travel$1,500 per person to go to East Africa$600 per person to go to Latin America

Number of PeopleApproximately 50 A&S and SoE people in the club right now4-6 people travel each trip, ideally twice a year15 people traveling per project

Costs of Project$5,000 for a borehole$7,500 for an implementation trip$10,000 for project supplies

Special Thanks To: Tisch College,

Tufts Institute of Global Leadership (IGL), Tufts University School of Engineering,

Tufts Alumni Traditions Committee, Engineers Without Borders USA,

andFred Berger and Family.

*all numbers are estimates

Project Summary*

About Tufts EWB

The Tufts undergraduate chapter of Engineers Without Borders was formed in 2004 as a collaboration between the Institute for Global Leadership and the School of Engineering to facilitate university student participation in international sustainable development projects.

Over the past year, EWB Latin America has been networking with several NGOs across Nicaragua. After a scouting trip in January, we decided to work with Reserva Silvestre Quelantaro, in the municipality of Villa el Carmen, a Nicaragua-based wildlife refuge whose mission is to protect the local environment and promote environmental justice through education, conservation and sustainable development of the surrounding communities. We are currently completing applications to partner with the community of Silvio Mayorga on a project to build a pump, tank, and water distribution system.

After wrapping up our five years in Shilongo, Uganda, the East Africa chapter is actively searching for a new project. In fall 2015, we worked with an NGO and local engineer to plan an exploratory trip to Tanzania. Unfortunately, the trip did not materialize as we had hoped. Since last semester, we have been working with an NGO in Malawi, Joshua Orphan and Community Care.  The organization works on clean water access projects in community centers outside of the city of Blantyre.  We traveled to Malawi this past August to assess a community and are planning to either repair an existing borehole or implement a water distribution system later next semester.

East Africa

Latin America

Tufts Engineers Without Borders

Past ProjectsTibet (2004-2009)

Location: Gyapthang, TibetNGO: N/AImplementation: EWB-Tufts' inaugural project was in the small

Himalayan village of Gyapthang, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. We (Tufts EWB) worked with the community to introduce a solar cooker and a closed, self-composting latrine. The team tested water quality, helped facilitate the construction of a self-composting latrine and solar cooker!

Ecuador (2006-2011)Location: El Cristal, EcuadorNGO: Fundación Bretheren y Unida (FBU)Implementation: The Tufts EWB team conducted surveys about

economics, health, and water while implementing a backup water storage system in 2007. That year, the community determined that their primary concern was water quality, so we set up a collaboration between the community and Tufts EWB. Further water quality tests were done, and a biosand filtration system was put into place.

El Salvador (2009-2015)Location: El Porvenir, El SalvadorNGO: EPILOGOSImplementation: We conducted surveys regarding water quality, water

supply and demand, and community health while undergoing water quality testing in 2009. The community’s primary water source was an uncovered spring box on the river bed, so we reinforced and covered it to avoid contamination. We constructed three rainwater catchment systems throughout the area and made an agreement with the local government to transport water by truck to each community.

Uganda (2009-2015)Location: Shilongo, UgandaNGO: Foundation for the Development of Needy Communities (FDNC)Implementation: A borehole was in place in the community, but the

villagers wanted a way to decrease wait time for the collection of water. To do so, we constructed a bike-pedal powered pump and storage tank for the borehole. However, this was unsuccessful because the culture of the community did not allow women, who were primarily the ones getting water, to pedal the bicycle in public. To fix this, we implemented solar panels to power the pump.