Help Create a World of Opportunity

1 Second for every $100 !

Friends, family, and colleagues –

This year I am helping Engineers Without Borders build a World of Opportunity for rural Africans.

For every $100 I raise, I will stay deep in the frigid waters of the North Pacific Ocean for 1 second. Please donate to my shrivelling agony.

Thanks (??) the the incredibly generous hearts of my colleagues, I've raised roughly $7000 through work, so I'll be in for 84 seconds - Help (??) me get to 90 seconds!

Why I volunteer / support Engineers-Without-Borders.

Having worked a bit in the development field and read numerous books about the ineffectiveness of aid, I've become a very skeptical donor.

But aid IS important, and I appreciate the pragmatic, community-led approach that EWB takes.

The Water Supply and Sanitation work EWB supports in Malawi is a perfect example. Here's one of the poorest countries in the world with a gross national income per capita of $290 (compared to Canada's $41,730), with as many as 35% of the water points in Malawi that simply don’t work. Without lasting access to clean water, thousands of families are needlessly trapped in a cycle of sickness and poverty.

EWB is supporting a local partner to map water points and monitor their functionality across Malawi, to best understand why they break down. Whereas many other development agencies and organisations run amok in Africa installing wells here and there, it does little to solve the root cause of the problem. In Malawi's case, EWB worked with the local partner (important for the solution to be sustainable) and recognised that it wasn't a lack of wells - the coverage is actually quite good - it was an inability to maintain the wells (broken supply chains for equipment, lack of capacity, etc.).

The team of volunteers is creating innovative tools to better manage the flow of this critical information to help bring long-term access to clean water in Malawi’s most remote communities. In 2010, 30 EWB volunteers will improve the sustainability of Malawi’s wells, contributing to our overall goal of having 90% of water points working within five years.

Here in Canada, they were instrumental towards getting the government to untie aid last year and developing a 'global issues' program for the Engineering Curriculum across Canada.

This holiday season please donate to my World of Opportunity campaign and support my passion and commitment to EWB. Together, we can help increase the opportunities for rural Africans to thrive.