Engineers Without Borders

Project meeting 10/6/08

October 7, 2008 at 11:23 pm | In Meeting Minutes | Comments Off

EWB Project Meeting 10-6-08

Brad talked about adding a fundraiser group to our group breakout. The banquet, football parking, and books for Africa are three of our biggest of the right now.

We started a group, led by Carl, to bring newcomers up to speed.

Kelly has talked to Aaron (the local peace corp. volunteer) about our plan for Water catchments for the next trip. However, he is in DC for the next two to three weeks. We really need him down there to start working with the community to ensure that we have enough labor to complete the project (unlike last summer where some local people bailed out…). We might ask for a community monetary buy in so they have more of a connection to the project.

• A local mason makes $15 a day. The average person may make as little as $3, so we need to come up with a buy a in that is not too high, but also will keep people dedicated.  Maybe around $5?

Aaron wants us to email him with a list of all of the things we are worried about and potential problems for this next project.

We also have a list of questions regarding the potential sites for the Winter trip.  This information is very important if we are to establish a design for the water catchments (how many tanks, where we could put them, etc.)

Potential for a Bolivian peace corp. volunteer replacing Aaron in March when he leaves is unlikely.

• Some chapters stay away from peace corp in favor of direct contact with community, we just need someone with a cell phone there to keep in contact with.

Aaron could help us strengthen the water board and find a caretaker for each water system to maintain them when he is gone.

The people in La Cumbre really want us to bring in a water system.  However, it would be very difficult to work in this region. They seem very willing to work to make it feasible for us.

• Lesson from previous trips: we have to start while they are still enthusiastic.
• There is also a $200 legal document required to complete this project.

We will plan on spending $200, even if we aren’t the ones who end up working there.

• Is building a gravity system there worth it? It might be expensive (steel pipe needed on hillsides)

Group Breakout:

• Public health/education: They went through the education materials and health assessment from last year. They also talked with two people who worked on project last year. They are currently debating which or how many of 3-4 health tests we should conduct plus what educational material to present.
• Design: They discussed options for tanks and water collection with intent to research tank materials. There are a lot of questions about site that need to be answered before the design can be completed.