ewbmsu@gmail.com

406-994-7156

We're working in Kenya!

As time and resources allow, we'll blog about our summer 2010 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. Check back for updates with the new academic year. We have new members and officers and will update the People page soon.

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. In the past four years, EWB-MSU has installed six deep water wells, five composting latrines, and one biogas latrine. In Dec. 2009, a group traveled to Khwisero to prepare for construction of a mile-long water distribution pipeline.

If, during the early part of 2010, the community makes preparations for the pipeline, it might be laid in summer 2010. These plans represent a major step forward in terms of scale and complexity of installations in which EWB-MSU is involved.

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