EWB Pumps Up Work of Burkina Faso Clinic When Maryland’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders first visited Burkina Faso in 2009, students discovered that the lack of electricity meant babies in the small town of Dissin were being delivered by candlelight. “For nurses, that meant waiting for people to carry fresh water from the well to the clinic,” says student project leader Steve Emling. The students returned months later, working with community members to install solar-powered fluorescent lights in the maternity wards of four clinics. Over the last three years, the engineers in training have continued to provide sustainable solutions to urgent problems in local health care in Dissin. Another EWB team returned in January 2012 to expand the solar powered lighting and construct a solar-powered water pumping, sanitation and distribution system at one of the clinics. Today, the town’s busiest medical facility has both clean water and good lighting. Chapter President Kevin Fries ‘13 says EWB is committed to implementing sustainable projects to benefit communities, but also to teaching those communities to be sustainable on their own. “Yes, EWB can build a solar pumping station, but without teaching community members how to use or build it, that station will remain the only station in the community, and when it breaks no one will be able to fix it,” he says. “We like to integrate a common philosophy into all our projects: Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime.”
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