What is EWB?
Engineers Without Borders is a student-run organization dedicated to working with local and international communities to create sustainable, community-driven engineering solutions to improve quality of life. The chapter at the University of Massachusetts Amherst operates programs in Saviefe-Deme, Ghana, Nguluni, Kenya, and Holyoke, MA.
UMass Amherst EWB Structure
Engineers Without Borders at UMass is split into three different projects: Ghana, Kenya, and the newest project, the Nuestras Raíces (Local) Project. Each project works with their respective community in an attempt to improve their quality of life, with a focus on access to clean water. Each project meets once a week, where students, faculty, and community members work together to implement effective, sustainable designs. There are several other events throughout the year where the entire UMass chapter comes together including chapter bonding and fundraising events.
Who is Involved?
There are many moving parts within the UMass Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. EWB has sponsors who play a crucial role in helping to keep EWB moving forward with our goals. Professors play a major role in keeping the projects on track. Executive Board members meet separately once a week to plan EWB events. Project Managers, who also attend Executive Board meetings, are also in charge of running the weekly project meetings and submitting official EWB USA reports. Finally, the most important group is the members of EWB themselves! Without each member attending the weekly meetings, EWB would not be what it is today. Each and every member plays a huge role in offering new ideas and working on the projects themselves.
Conscious Impacts
We strive to be conscious of our impacts in each of our projects. Sustainability is a crucial part of maintaining a healthy and clean water supply for the communities that we work with. To make sure community members can take full ownership of the projects during and after implementation, all materials for our projects are sourced locally to the respective communities. We also aim to facilitate effective communication between the communities we work with and our project teams. Making sure our relationships with the wonderful communities we work with have strong foundations is extremely important to the longevity of our relationship. Once we begin working with a community, we make a commitment to stay with them for at least 5 years. We are constantly looking for more ways to make sure the work we do is sustainable for us, the communities we work with, and the planet.
How to get Involved
There are so many ways to get involved with EWB! For students, the main way is to attend the project meetings of any (or all!) projects. There are three different projects in case one of them does not fit your schedule. Students can also attend chapter meetings or fundraising events to stay involved. If you attend a meeting, or reach out to a project manager or club member, you will find out that there are many other meetings and ways to get involved as well! Make sure to reach out to a project manager or stay tuned to the website for more information!
Alumni, parents, faculty, and other supporters can contribute to our project by following our project emails (Kenya, Ghana, Local Project) or donating.
Alumni, parents, faculty, and other supporters can contribute to our project by following our project emails (Kenya, Ghana, Local Project) or donating.
