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Introduction
This introductory chapter provides fundamental background information and describes
the scope and incentive for the present project.
1.1 Engineers Without Borders
The worldwide organisation Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is a technical humanitar-
ian organisation whose mission is to establish lifesaving arrangements, such as access to
drinking water, proper sanitation and emergency shelters to people in disaster affected
areas. This is mainly done by providing engineering experience and technical knowledge.
Even though the main focus of the organisation is on emergency relief a part of their mis-
sion is focused on improving long term living conditions. Thus the organisation helps with
general reconstruction, rebuilding roads and bridges, and installing solar electric lighting
or small scale wind turbines to produce electricity.
In the 1980s the first organisation within Engineers Without Borders was started in
France. At that time it was named Ingénieurs sans frontières (ISF). In the 1990s branches of
ISF were started in both Spain and Italy, and soon many other national branches followed.
Today EWB has more than 40 member groups worldwide. In 2004 Engineers Without
Borders – International (EWB-I) was started. The role of EWB-I is to enable cooperation
and exchange of information between its member groups. Several of the EWB and ISF
organisations are organised under EWB-I, but organisations that are not members of EWB-
I still collaborate with each other on occasion. The present report will not distinguish
thoroughly between the individual parts of the organisation and will often refer to them
simply as EWB.
The Danish branch of Engineers Without Borders (EWB-DK) was started in 2001 and it has
full membership of EWB-I. The EWB-DK organisation is a non-profit organisation that is
funded by contributions from public and private donators and from subscriptions from its
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