If you are interested in participating, please email Melissa Hassler. As of now, we can take 15 volunteers, so snag your spot soon if this is something you would like to do! We will be building at Jubilee Commons, located at 635 SE 197th Street, Portland, OR. Habitat asks their volunteers to volunteer from 8:30 until 3:30. Jubilee is an apartment complex with a central community center that Habitat has been working on since May 2007. More information is available upon request or check out the Habitat for Humanity Portland Metro Website

Articles include…

• A brief on the chicken project with our Haiti partners,
• An update on all the active projects,
• 2010 chapter goals, and
• Upcoming events

• Dead Aid – Dambisa Moyo
• Creating a World Without Poverty – Mahammad Unus
• Hot, Flat, & Crowded – Mahammad Unus
• Engineering & Sustainable Community Development – Juan Lucena

A few others I recommend:

• Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
• The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time – Jeffrey D. Sachs

Anyone have more to share, or have comments on these books?

Take Advantage of EWB-USA’s Ongoing Resume Service

Send your resumes to careers@ewb-usa.org and EWB-USA will deliver them to participating 2010 Sponsors in April.
In your e-mail, please include your specialty, experience level, any certifications, and information you think a potential employer might find helpful.

Last year EWB-USA launched a resume collection service in an effort to support our members. To date, we have delivered 300+ resumes to our sponsors and will do so again in April. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to connect with corporations that have made an investment in EWB-USA’s mission and social responsibility.

The conference provided ample opportunities for networking with other chapters (both national and international), hearing great speakers, and learning what’s the latest with our organization.

One noteworthy presentation (presentation materials will soon be posted to the EWB-USA website):

• Forum on Challenges of Sustainable Economic Development: Four panelists discussed various approaches to sustainable development, often arguing between focusing on the triple bottom line (economics, people, environment) and the motivation of profit, vs. focusing less on market approaches and more on building relationships. Good arguments were given for both. All agreed that helping a community develop sustainably must include an appropriate Exit Strategy that clearly defines how systems will operate long after the NGO has left.

Wish I had time to write more about the other presentations. I highly encourage everyone to attend these conferences!

Looks like next year’s conference will be held in Louisville, Kentucky.

• Sponsors: Both Boeing, ASCE, and Black & Veatch had a big presence at the event. We heard that Google representatives were present as well (they were impressed at our network after offering a Google Match Program in December 2009). Perhaps we’ll have another sponsor soon?… Also just found out that EWB-USA has started a partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative.
• NSF: Representatives from the National Science Foundation’s Office of International Science & Engineering (OISE) presented at the conference on potential funding from NSF for EWB research projects.
• Rotary: We were encouraged to continue networking with Rotary groups, with assumptions that they will soon become a big source of funding.
• Project Tracking System: EWB-USA is working on a Project Record System that will help to track all EWB projects – expected to launch at the end of summer. This should really streamline their review process, help with automated responses, etc.
• Discussion Forum: EWB-USA is launching a discussion forum – should be out by May.
• EWB Paraphernalia! Nationals is going to launch a store with T-shirts, water bottles, etc. for sell – which we can customize for our chapter!
• Facebook: I asked one of the EWB-USA tech guys to look into how to get Facebook pages to deliver donations directly to our chapter accounts. He looked into it and found that there is a way to do this. He is going to communicate this to all chapters soon. I’ll follow-up with him (or let me know if you want to follow-up with him).
• EWB Corporate Video. A nice video was created for all chapters to use for spreading the word about our organization. After some final edits, it will be posted soon.
• Other Chapters & Their Tech Tools. As far as tech tools used by other chapters, most use a wiki to collaborate and share documents. Our AMA team is looking into this and may recommend it to us as well. Otherwise, it seems that our chapter is pretty advanced compared to the other chapters. Especially in regards to our npcollab site. I have a few recommendations to look into (feel free to check these out and let me know what you find): dropbox (Brooke already noted this one); SmugMug (photo storage); Cafe Press; iGive; erooms; media wiki.
• “GeoWiki”: A student at U. Minnesota knows a fellow student who is working on developing a GeoWiki that will show the locations of recommended EWB businesses, NGOs, etc. on maps. This should also help us identify the locations of other projects in the vicinity of our projects. Hopefully they remember to let the broader EWB community know when it is up and running!

Ok, that’s all for now. Let me know if you have any questions on these – I might have a little more info.

In place of our monthly chapter meeting, Engineers Without Borders Portland Professionals is hosting a “meet-and-greet” social. Bring some friends, make some friends, and get to know your fellow EWB colleagues in a casual, social setting. We’ll be cooling our spring fever with some friendly conversation and tasty beverages at Ringlers Pub. Come relax, enjoy, and get caught up on the work our local chapter is doing to improve the quality of life in developing communities through our current projects.

• Wednesday, April 7^th, 5:30pm-8:30pm
• Ringlers Pub – 1332 W Burnside, Portland, OR 97209
• Local micro-brew, wine, spirits, and pub fare

* For more information, feel free to contact your chapter Events Chair, Brookley Duke (brookley@ewbportland.org)

Take Our Poll

The great Les Anglais chicken program

28 Feb, 2010

How will this story end? I worry about the upcoming hurricane season since its potential impact on Haiti and Les Anglais could be tragic in any year.  It is impossible to predict the next challenge for this community. Nevertheless, the Les Anglais chicken story has a great beginning. Here’s why I’m optimistic that this program has the makings of a successful and sustainable model:

• Etienne has been working on farm programs in Les Anglais for over a decade. He knows through experience what works here. International organizations have more resources available for programs in Haiti, but they often do not have the knowledge of how to integrate their work with each community to sustain it.
• Etienne has developed a training and certification program for extension agents to assist with all of the programs he introduces. His experience in training others over the years will ensure the young people involved in the Les Anglais chicken program will be given the knowledge they need to provide sustainable care to the chickens. They will also be given the opportunity to envision a future where more improvement is possible.
• The community sees the immediate and long-term benefit of sustaining a chicken program, and community interest will be expanded as new chicken coops can be added to more neighborhoods.
• This program provides a rare opportunity for economic development in Les Anglais.  It began in the hearts and minds of locals and is being implemented by their own labor. We have enabled the program through our contributions, but ultimately the program will endure through the faith and efforts of people in Les Anglais.

The last bulleted point leads me to reflect on how aid is provided in places like Haiti. We have had discussions in the water project regarding how we invest our time and funds. How much value do we provide after we spend thousands of dollars to fly to Haiti, drive across the country, and feed ourselves while we do our work? At what point do we decide our physical presence is not adding enough value? When is it better to just donate money to responsible individuals as was done with the chicken program? No definitive answers to these questions exist in my mind, but it is still instructive to ask them as we continue our work in Haiti.

At this point in time I continue to wait for Etienne’s periodic updates. In my heart I have high hopes that the Les Anglais chicken program will continue to be great. I am also so very thankful to all of you who have taken a big leap of faith and donated to this program without firsthand knowledge of Etienne’s dedication and leadership, and of the wholehearted willingness of the Les Anglais community to reap goodness from your generosity.  There is so much to be done in Haiti and it is easy to get discouraged at the magnitude of challenges that Haitians face.  How do these challenges get resolved? One step at a time. Never give up.

Mesi Anpil!

Carolyn

Mesi anpil!

good chickens

Feb 24 2010: Etienne describes the first big egg sale, EWB team welcomes new arrival.

I’m back to real time after finally receiving dozens of beautiful chicken project pictures to post. Etienne called this evening to talk about eggs. Last week they had gathered and packed 2000 eggs to bring to Les Cayes to sell. They sold them all! They are saving some of the egg money to expand the chicken program, i.e. more chickens would mean more neighborhoods participating. Etienne would ultimately like 10 coops spread all over Les Anglais. People from these neighborhoods would have a steady source of high quality protein (eggs) and if they can start a good breeding program they will be able to start eating chickens as well. Etienne is still working out the chicken food plans as feed corn is planted later and won’t be ready for awhile.

We also welcomed a new arrival to our world last week. Grace and Jon Weatherford had a baby boy, Colin Stephen. Grace, if you’re reading this Etienne sends his congratulations and love.

Taking care of chickens

young woman gathers eggs

Chicken transport

Etienne's vaccination clinic