Pro-Bono Engineering
Engineering World Health Nonprofit Merges Into Engineers Without Borders
A project leader for the EWB-USA Cornell University chapter worked with a community member in the Sunuka village of Tanzania (right) to repair leaks in its solar-powered irrigation system.
Photo Courtesy EWB-USA
Two engineering non-profits staffed by thousands of industry volunteer practitioners, students and others—Engineers Without Borders USA and Engineering World Health—have combined operations to strengthen their capacity to build infrastructure in resource-poor global communities.
Founded in 2002 by a civil engineering professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, EWB-USA has grown from a handful of engineers who installed a waterfall-powered clean water system for 950 Mayan Indians in Belize to 14,000 volunteers working on 350 engineering projects across the globe. More than 5 million people around the world have been impacted through its efforts, according to the organization's website. Volunteer engineers and biomedical professionals working with EWH have installed and repaired life-saving equipment in resource-poor hospitals in Asia, Africa and Latin America, providing more than $30 million in services since the organization's inception in 2004.
According to Boris Martin, CEO of EWB-USA, the merger will integrate EWH biomedical equipment and technical training into EWB-USA sustainable infrastructure development in water supply, sanitation, energy, agriculture and other projects.
“During the pandemic it became clear that the state of health care in some of the communities [where EWB-USA operates] is really poor,” Martin said in an interview, noting that this realization led to conversations between the two groups on how to leverage more expertise in installing and repairing life-saving equipment across the U.S. and internationally to build sustainable communities.
“The holistic practice of engineering is at the core of what we do [and] the integration of EWH into our work helps us trigger the shift of perspective from ‘I’m here to build a water system’ to ‘I’m here to improve the health outcomes of a community,’” he says.
Most recently, EWB-USA has been supporting U.S. communities that could benefit from funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, but which lack resources to apply for the support.
"We do the pre-engineering reports pro bono," Martin says. "We’ve identified that so many communities don’t have access to the engineering they need to even conceive of what can make them better off. That’s where the engineering profession has a mandate for giving back."
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