News Release
Bridges Across Borders
On Tuesday May 27th, 2011, NMSU’s student organization Engineers Without Borders, touched down at El Paso International Airport after completing their two week long bridge project deep in the jungles of Nicaragua. The group of 20 arrived in the US feeling accomplished, exhausted, but most of all, delightedly satisfied. Battling excessive heat, humidity, and spontaneous rainstorms, they managed to complete the 200ft. pedestrian footbridge for the impoverished village of Hondura Azul in the province of Condega.
Professor Kenny Stevens and Dr. Sonya Cooper of the Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering Department led the group of students to the rural Nicaraguan village, literally torn in half every year when the rainy season arrives and floods the river. This flooding restricts commuting efforts from one side of the town to the other—inhibiting access to schools and obstructing trade between nearby villages. Leaving all modern conveniences back in New Mexico, the organization entered a world with no running water, no waste management facilities, and no electricity. By filtering their own water from nearby sources, residing in tents, and eating food prepared by locals, the organization experienced an undoubtedly humbling lifestyle.
Engineers Without Borders is funded largely by donors, EWB Alumni, and various sales. The money collected for the Nicaraguan bridge materials (about $8000) was sent directly to their project partners, Bridges to Prosperity (a global development organization), who purchased all of their needed materials and had them waiting on location.
Some other past projects EWB NMSU has been involved in also took place south of the border. In 2009, they built a foot bridge in Las Boquillas, Chihuahua as well as a new potable water well in Ancones in 2010. These services are also found closer to home with work on the Anthony Community Project. This ongoing project focuses on parking lot repair, rainfall harvesting and solar powered greenhouses. Despite its name, Engineers Without Borders is not strictly limited to engineering majors—in fact, about 1/3 of the members are in pursuit of other degrees and any NMSU student with a philanthropic edge and a desire to help create a safer, more structurally sound world is welcome to join. All things considered, the Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering Department is privileged to be affiliated with such an honorable organization.
To find out more information or to make a donation to EWB NMSU, please visit http://web.nmsu.edu/~ewb/Home.html and for more information about their project partner, Bridges to Prosperity, visit their site at http://www.bridgestoprosperity.org/index.html