Sep 2009 - Parsons Brinckerhoff

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