Engineers Without Borders Team

Anne Marine Boubennec, Birgit Kann, Daniel Sturby, Hippolyt Fogaing, Karine Duval, Lee Knaggsi, Meiry Matsuda, Ruth Keene, Stéphanie Di Sano, Tanya Brown
 

Ten online volunteers have made critical contributions to the work of Engineers Without Borders, an NGO in Cameroon, by supporting the design of a Knowledge Centre for Development that will foster the promotion of science and technology in African development and by developing a new website.

The online volunteers’ work allowed the organization to reach a wider audience, interact with partners, share knowledge, and facilitate the replication of good practices. They did this by creating an interactive website and translating its content from French into English. The online training and manual they provided also empowered the organization staff to manage the website without further support.

The team of online volunteers that supported the Knowledge Centre for Development project completed a comprehensive analysis of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the project’s context, contributed their ideas during a conceptual brainstorming, developed the concept note, the architectural design and partnership strategy, and identified potential partners. “Online volunteers played a crucial role in allowing us to better conceptualize the project and to define our strategy. By sharing their skills the online volunteers strengthened the organizational and technical capacities of Engineer Without Borders and its staff,” says Emilienne Lionelle Ngo-Samnick, who coordinated the online volunteers.

Birgit Kann, native of Germany / living in Switzerland: “I chose to apply for the project because my ambition as an architect is to work at the intersection of architectural and urban planning and sustainable development. I was given the opportunity to be the team leader for the architecture team. It is exciting and fulfilling to work with people from very different cultural and professional backgrounds who share a common belief in peace and development.”

Hippolyt Fogaing, Cameroon: “I applied to support Engineers Without Borders in this project because it was aimed at resolving the problem of a lack of research infrastructure for development in Cameroon and in Africa.”

Tanya Brown, native of Australia, living in U.K.: “I chose to work with this organization as I hold a Master’s degree in Engineering. I expanded my knowledge of projects, priorities and ways of working in Cameroon, which allows me to have new ideas, strategies and approaches within my current work.”

Ruth Keene, U.K.: “What particularly strikes me about this NGO is the simple and pragmatic approach of their projects, which take into account the regional context in order to facilitate rural development with a minimum of resources. Volunteering reminded me of the importance of sharing one’s skills and that the true development of a country should be occurring from within the country, i.e. the citizens themselves, in order to ensure continued and sustainable development. “