ewbmsu@gmail.com

406-994-7156

We're working in Kenya!

As time and resources allow, we'll blog about our 2009 trip to Kenya. Be sure to watch the short video about Engineers Without Borders at Montana State University, produced by Jaime Jelenchick at Partnership Productions, on our blog page.

We work in the spirit of grass-roots and community-specific projects. Our ambitious long-term goal is to provide the community of Khwisero, located in Western Kenya, with potable water and improved sanitation. We will accomplish this by supplying clean, reliable water sources and effective sanitation facilities to each of the 58 primary schools in the Khwisero Division.

EWB at MSU aims to provide sustainable solutions to address each school's unique set of challenges. We make sure that the community is involved, so that upon completion, the project is owned and maintained by the community.

Brick by brick, and school by school, we divide and share the work. As of fall 2008, we have installed five wells and two composting latrines in Western Khwisero's, and we plan to return in the summer of 2009 to continue our work. By this fall, we hope to place wells and latrines at two schools in Eastern Khwisero in addition to installing a bio-gas latrine at the Shirali school.

OUR SUMMER 2008 HIGHLIGHTS:

• 3 wells drilled
• 50+ household surveys
• 50+ springs mapped
• 14 EWBers made tons of Kenyan friendships
• learned some Swahili and Kiluhya "sawa sawa"
• 150+ pen pal letters
• met with (almost) all headmasters about our project
• started a written history
• increased awareness of EWB in Kenya
• interviewed people for radio documentary series
• investigated bio-gas latrines
• killed 3 goats
• organized technical and management training
• created an application board for the schools
• rode single-speed 70 lb. bikes
• traveled to Kenya for the first time – 11 EWBers
• added 1 new Kenyan team member – Lawrence
• battled bats
• 1 in 5 bags misplaced by airlines
• changed 5 flat tires