The Happold Foundation has supported Engineers Without Borders (EWB) in furthering its Global Engineering Fellowship programme by awarding Grants for Good Ideas funding.
Recognising that many communities at disadvantage have little or no access to the engineering expertise needed to improve the environment in which they live, EWB has developed a programme that enables engineers at all stages of their career to contribute to projects around the world. This stage of the programme has focused primarily on delivering clean energy and water projects in Kenya, India and the Philippines.
We have been involved with the Global Engineering Fellowship programme since its beginnings in 2016, when we awarded EWB Grants for Good Ideas funding to help start the initiative. After successfully applying for a second grant in 2017, EWB has been able to implement a number of elements to help grow it from a pilot to an on-going programme.
The Water Fellowship team in the Philippines with SIBAT
The funding has enabled EWB to make a number of improvements to the programme. Work has included implementing user-friendly data collection methods to allow engineers working on EWB projects to feedback progress while on site, and introducing covering the costs of international dial-in codes to enable volunteers to join group discussions. A key development has been implementing more training for junior engineers, giving them more time with senior volunteers which in turn meant they needed less supervision when starting out on projects.
The grant has also contributed to running a number of alumni events and talks, and enabled more contact and knowledge sharing between junior and senior volunteer engineers.
Junior and Senior Fellows in Kenya
The Clean Energy Fellowship team in Prakti with our 2016-2017 volunteer
The Global Engineering Fellowship is aiming to continue its work to improve the built environment for disadvantaged communities both in the UK and abroad, as well as providing learning and development opportunities for the global engineering community.
To find out more about the way the Global Engineering Fellowship is growing, read the EWB report.
To learn more about the Global Engineering Fellowship programme, visit www.ewb-uk.org.