Who we are
We are ski bums and waiters. We are full-time students and some professionals bursting with extra energy for our hopeful, incremental, and symbiotic project. We are Engineers Without Borders, the MSU Bozeman chapter (EWB at MSU). We bring clean water to Khwisero (kwi-ser-o)' Kenya by drilling wells and digging latrines. Our vision as EWB at MSU is to ensure that clean water is readily available to all of the schools in the Khwisero division.
Our projects are sustainable, and marry our calculating engineer brains with humanitarian longings and responsibilities. Our group, EWB at MSU, is a self-supporting, interdisciplinary, volunteer student organization. We have approximately 40 active members—not just engineers though! Such a project requires and embraces students from an impressive range of academic disciplines. The EWB at MSU student members study film, architecture, land resources, sociology, nursing, education, and yes, engineering, too. The collective skills and perspectives of our group allow for more comprehensive action in Kenya and the Bozeman community. We unite behind a love of the world and a dedication to this project; we are educated locally and active globally.
EWB at MSU is part of something bigger. Engineers Without Borders (EWB-USA) is a national non-profit, humanitarian organization of engineers and engineering students. All EWB-USA members work on sustainable engineering projects in developing communities. The organization functions around partnerships: each chapter in the United States is paired with a community in a developing country, which has specific engineering project needs. We are partnered with the Khwisero division in rural, Western Kenya and work with the villages there to address their water supply and sanitation problems. Hence, we drill wells and dig latrines at the public schools.
Like every chapter, EWB at MSU operates on a volunteer and donation basis; thus, we have very low overhead costs. At the same time, we benefit from the resources and support of the entire national organization.
Related information: Meet some of the people with EWB at MSU.