With the impending doom of finals looming overhead and the CPH foyer slowly taking shape, but never quickly enough, it feels like a lot of students are saturated with too many last minute things to do before finals do start. With all of this in mind, I was really impressed with the impact Engineers Without Borders (EWB) was able to make with their EWB day on March 18. Amongst the many events they held during the day, I was able to see the information booth they had set up in South Campus Hall as well as the Splash Out Poverty event held in the courtyard at the Student Life Centre.
The main purpose of all of EWB’s activities was to raise awareness, both about EWB as well as about what they work towards. They kicked off the day with their information booth in SCH outside of the Campus Store where they were handing out free cookies, needless to say they had a lot of hungry takers who were waiting in the 3 mile line for Tim Horton’s. They used this to start the conversation with students about EWB, as well as what they’re hoping to do through their work. EWB primarily works to eradicate poverty in third world countries. The work done overseas, primarily in Africa is similar to that of the well-known Doctors Without Borders, who work to bring health care to these same areas. The benefit of sending engineers to work in these areas is that they possess the skills to work with the residents of these areas to help them achieve things like accessible drinking water, usable roads, or safe and adequate housing. A lot of previous EWB initiatives have been focused on providing clean drinking water for villages in Africa.
The focus of EWB this year is one that resonates with a lot of people following the aide scandals associated with the Haiti relief work in 2010. There were a number of fraudulent charities established following the earthquake in Haiti, as well as government money being mishandled both in the States as well as with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). The frustration faced by the public was mainly due to the lack of transparency by both their respective governments and the charitable organizations. Money was sent towards what appeared to be initiatives meant to help those in need after an intense natural disaster, and sometime afterwards word finally got out that it never got there, all the while those in Haiti still suffered. Similar fears are currently surfacing both regarding ongoing charitable efforts in the developing world, as well as efforts for the recently earthquake-hit Japan. EWB is currently pushing the Canadian government to work to change this.
EWB is currently pushing to have the Canadian government sign on to IATI, the International Aid Transparency Initiative who works to connect donor governments, governments of developing countries and non-government organizations (NGO’s) to work effectively and at full disclosure to the public. All participating organizations must agree to the IATI Accra Statement, which clearly outlines the requirement for all donations, initiatives and expenditures be made available to public scrutiny. There are additional clauses that also state that the organizations must also remain open to new possibilities on how to make the organization more transparent to the public. Essentially, the IATI ensures that the public is fully aware of where their donations are going and what is being done with them. It’s a huge accountability effort that not only ensures that these groups remain truthful and that public money is not wasted, but an increase in this transparency trend may also encourage more donations from the public in the future should they be able to easily see what is being done with their donations. Currently, Canada is not a part of IATI, and the focus of EWB this year is to change that so charitable efforts from Canada can be closely monitored by the public eye and so another CIDA scandal doesn’t happen.
Aside from their efforts overseas or on Parliament Hill, EWB makes a very impressive impact locally as well. During their splash out poverty event at the SLC, where brave EWB members donned the word ‘poverty’ in orange paint and encouraged students to splash them with water to wash it away, they asked each participant to make a pledge that would make a difference, like donating to the food bank or buying fair trade food. By the time I had left, they had already gathered a very impressive crowd and had made a number of pledges. It’s difficult to judge the effectiveness of events that are gauged towards building awareness since it’s such an intangible thing, but EWB definitely succeeded.
If you want to get involved with EWB, you can attend one of the general meetings they hold multiple times a term, or visit their website at uwaterloo.ewb.ca, where they have a regularly updated blog and tons of great information. Congrats on a job well-done EWB – hope you guys didn’t get too cold!
Leave a Reply