jueves, 26 de mayo de 2011

UNC Engineers Without Borders - Preparing to travel in June

This summer, UNC’s Engineers without Borders will work with the community of Cuidad de Dios, Peru to design a sustainable sanitation system.  Ciudad de Dios, an indigenous Quechua community, faces severe infant mortality from diarrheal diseases due to a lack of sanitation infrastructure.  This project aims to establish a community-run, ecological sanitation system in order to reduce incidence of diarrheal disease and decrease disparity between urban and rural sanitation in Peru.

UNC's Engineers without Borders team is a multidisciplinary group of undergrads and graduate students who are enthusiastic about working with Cuidad de Dios to meet basic infrastructure and public health needs.  To design our sanitation system, we drew upon the diverse academic backgrounds of our team, including Environmental Engineering, City and Regional Planning, and Public Health.

Our team has a long-term commitment to the community, which began in 2006.  We do not simply install systems, but involve the community in the whole process.  Our team has already seen the tremendous impacts that seemingly basic projects can have. Two years ago, our team constructed a gravity-fed water system, which earned the former squatter-community recognition from the local government. Once formally recognized, Cuidad de Dios was able to start a kindergarten class in their school and obtain electricity.

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