Sep 2009 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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At the Atutur Hospital in Kumi, Uganda, medical waste was being burned in the open air. Engineers for Overseas Development volunteers, including Andrea Culp and Michelle Hughes, are working on a medical waste incinerator that will make this necessary function a safer one. Wil Cao (left) surveys a completed reinforced concrete dam in the Siem Reap province of Cambodia, where he volunteered his services as lead structural engineer to assist Engineers Without Borders in completing the project. Infrastructure Gifts Engineers for Overseas Development “International development has been our passion for many years and is one of the main reasons we became civil engineers,” says Andrea Culp, a Graduate Civil Engineer in the Bristol, UK, office. She and Michelle Hughes, also a Graduate Engineer in Bristol, volunteer for Engineers for Overseas Development (EFOD)—a charity run by graduate engineers and architects to improve public health in developing countries. EFOD partners with local organizations and individuals to identify projects, and to educate and train local workers in construction techniques and the need for adequate public health and sanitation. “Taking part in these projects,” Culp says, “enables us to put our technical skills to the test and help communities in much need.” Culp and Hughes have been deeply involved with EFOD in a waste management project at Atutur Hospital in Kumi, Uganda. “We have just completed preliminary design of a medical waste incinerator, and we will be going to Uganda in October 2009 to construct it using local labor and materials,” says Hughes. The new incinerator will replace an open-air medical waste pit, and hospital staff will be trained to use the incinerator. “We have also been investigating the possibility of installing a rainwater harvesting system to ease the stress on the already overused hospital water supply and make it easier for the hospital to do laundry.” 8 • Notes A Lasting Legacy Andrea Culp Matthew Barber (third from left, above) in Usalama, Kenya, volunteering for Engineers Without Borders. Michelle Hughes Wil Cao Engineers Without Borders PB employees from several offices contribute their expertise to assist Engineers Without Borders (EWB), which seeks to assist communities in need of better sanitation, water supplies, housing, energy and transportation. Wil Cao, Matthew Barber and Preston Vineyard, Structural Engineers in New York, have been supporting EWB on projects that are coming to fruition for communities in Cambodia and Kenya. For a community of 9,000 in the Siem Reap province of Cambodia, Cao was the lead structural engineer for the design and construction of a 20-meter (65-foot) reinforced concrete dam to replace a reservoir and irrigation system washed away by heavy rains, disrupting the harvest and leaving the community in extreme poverty. Cao’s on-site challenges ran the gamut from using a remotecontrolled kite to take aerial photos, to avoiding land mines from previous conflicts and dealing with the local political hierarchy. “At the village level and the provincial level, all parties wanted a reservoir to be built, but everything in between seemed to be a chain of broken links, and it became our task to try to link them all together,” says Cao. “Contacting and engaging the village leaders, acquiring local laborers/volunteers and negotiating land rights were among the tougher challenges. “Initially,” says Cao, “I approached this project as an engineer, telling myself these people need a dam. I can help build a dam. But now, beyond the engineering, I see this project coming to life through its people. It is gratifying and humbling to impact so many.” EWB expects the project will result in a three-fold increase in rice harvests for the people in the village of Balang. Barber and Vineyard have also been working with the residents of Usalama, Kenya. Forced to leave their previous home in 1990 due to the creation of a game reserve, the villagers found no infrastructure of any kind in their new home. The villagers had to build their own primary school, and women and children were forced to walk long distances and across a busy highway to get clean water. Barber volunteered to help with a clean water distribution system and traveled to Usalama in 2006. Vineyard went in November 2008 to inspect the new water facility and to start work on the expansion and renovation of the crumbling school building. All the projects are carried out by the villagers. “Although the engineering tasks can be challenging, the most interesting and most rewarding part of the project for me is working with the local communities,” says Vineyard, adding that the design of the new library for the school is complete and construction is under way. Simon Douse volunteers for Bridges to Prosperity; he is seen here in East Timor where he has overseen construction of a bridge in Alieu, a rural district. Notes • 9
RAISING MONEY AND AWARENESS PB employees take on some tough fundraising challenges to support nonprofit organizations that assist communities with infrastructure needs. Climbing to Support WaterAid In addition to volunteering with Engineers for Overseas Development, Andrea Culp and Michelle Hughes have been fundraising for WaterAid, whose mission is, “to help improve water and sanitation for some of the world’s poorest people.” Culp organized the PB Water Engineering team’s participation in a major fundraising event called 2009 WaterAid Trail 100 Challenge on June 6, 2009. A total of 19 employees from the Bristol and Cardiff offices, along with family and friends, climbed two popular mountains—Hound Tor in Devon and Elidir Fawr in Wales—to raise money and awareness for WaterAid. Long-Distance Swim for Amend Tom Bishop and David Glew, of Godalming, took on a major personal challenge to raise funds for Amend Tanzania. On June 6, Bishop and Glew participated in a sponsored 5-kilometer (3-mile) sea swim from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. The swim required significant training and involved crossing four shipping lanes. “It took us around one hour and 40 minutes,” says Bishop. “Together, we raised more than £2,000 for three charities: Amend Tanzania, the Portsmouth and Southsea Voluntary Lifeguards (the lifeguards who attended the swim), and the Motor Neuron Disease Association. This included £500 donated by the PB Foundation.” On the Hook for EWB Raising money for projects of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is a major challenge, according to Matthew Barber. “We’re on the hook to come up with, at a minimum, our own expenses— travel costs, equipment and the like. Usually, we end up raising funds for at least some of the construction, too. Fortunately for us, the PB Foundation matches employee donations to EWB through its Matching Funds Program. [PB also supports Bridges to Prosperity through the Matching Funds Program.] PB’s support has been there when some of our other benefactors have disappeared, and we appreciate that.” • Top: David Glew (left) and Tom Bishop took part in a sponsored swim to raise funds for Amend, which seeks to improve road safety in developing countries. In El Salvador (left to right), Simon Douse, Matthew Barber and Preston Vineyard helped construct bridges that make it easier for people to move from village to village to conduct trade. Bridges to Prosperity By building pedestrian bridges, Bridges to Prosperity (B2P) aims to connect isolated rural communities to markets, schools and health care. This goal is heartily embraced by Matthew Barber and Preston Vineyard who, along with Simon Douse, an Electro-mechanical Engineer in PB’s Sydney office, traveled to Central America with B2P in February 2009. Their mission: to help construct new foundations for two bridges in Sonsonate, El Salvador, and to inspect two recently completed bridges near Gracias, Honduras. In both countries, the original bridges had been washed away by hurricane flooding. “The people we are helping have very basic infrastructure needs and it’s nice to practice our profession in ways that so directly help fill those needs,” says Barber. Douse has spearheaded the construction of a bridge in rural East Timor. The goal is to complete the structure before the start of the 2009 rainy season. The bridge will serve as a demonstration of the technology and how similar bridges can help other rural Timorese communities. One of B2P’s key goals is to train local engineers to use sustainable, standardized footbridge designs and construction methods. Barber has taken on a number of challenges for B2P including helping coordinate a group of PB volunteers to provide much-needed drafting assistance. “The PB drafting community really stepped up to help out,” he says. “I had drafters from as far away as New Zealand offering to pitch in.” Barber says the bridges are “fun to work on and to think about,” and he and Vineyard are designing a couple of details to increase the robustness and versatility of the standard B2P bridge, a suspended bridge with a deck supported from below by cables which run through a saddle at the towers and are anchored behind each tower. Amend Road accidents are the leading cause of death for children in Tanzania, according to Tom Bishop, a Transport Planner in Godalming. Bishop won a PB Community Project Competition that enables Tom Bishop the winner to devote a significant amount of time to a charitable effort. He started a six-month sabbatical in June 2009, at half pay, to work in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for the road safety charity Amend. As the Acting Country Director for Amend Tanzania, Bishop is setting up a program similar to the organization’s “Be Seen, Be Safe” campaign that has been successful in Ghana. Introduced in primary schools using posters and other written materials, Amend’s educational program raises awareness of road safety for pedestrians. During a trip to Ghana to see the program in action, Bishop observed kids walking along singing the songs they learned from Amend. To ensure that Amend Tanzania will continue after his tenure, Bishop is focused on meeting his primary challenge—to recruit and train local staff to run the program. Bishop also plans to write two handbooks while in Tanzania: one as a guide for permanent in-country staff and another as a guide for others to set up Amend offices in other countries. For more information about the organizations and projects mentioned in this article, vist the following Websites: Engineers For Overseas Development (EFOD): http://www.Efod.Org.Uk/ Engineers Without Borders Websites (ewb): http://www.Ewb-usa.Org/ http://ewbnycambodia.Blogspot.Com/ http://www.Usalamaproject.Blogspot.Com/ Bridges To Prosperity (B2P): http://www.Bridgestoprosperity.Org Amend http://amend.Org/ Botswana Orphan Project http://www.Botswanaorphanproject.Com Wateraid http://www.Wateraid.Org The Botswana Orphan Project “In Botswana, Africa, there are fewer than 2 million people, yet it is estimated that 270,000 adults are HIV positive and 120,000 children have lost at least one parent to the epidemic. With our work, we can show these kids that life is worth living,” says Ryan Williams, an Electrical Engineer in Brisbane. Williams is pursuing a mission he started in 2007. “I grew up in Botswana and moved to Australia on a scholarship when I was 19,” he recounts. “On one of my university holidays, I flew back to Botswana and took some photos of a program for orphans run by a local church. I was challenged to do something to help and decided to build a more permanent facility that could be used as an orphan care center. After the first successful ‘fly-and-build’ project in 2007, I was challenged to do the same thing in a different part of the country in 2008. This year’s project will be the fifth orphan care facility that has resulted from these efforts.” Ryan Williams leads groups of volunteers in assisting the Botswana Orphan Project with construction of facilities to house children who have lost their parents to AIDS and other diseases. Williams’s 2009 project—a facility to house 300 orphans in Thamaga—was designed by students from the Queensland University of Technology. After major fundraising efforts, Williams led a group of about 20 volunteers, including students, to Botswana for four weeks in June and July 2009 to work on the construction, and left money and donated materials for locals to finish the center. “The center will be run by community members employed as teachers, caregivers and principals. Ultimately, local churches and nongovernment organizations will ensure its ongoing operation,” says Williams. Meanwhile, the mechanical section in Brisbane has been helping out with a roof truss design, and the power section is working on a research application to develop a sustainable source of energy for the project. • 10 • Notes Notes • 11
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Sep 2009 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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