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Volunteer Project Highlight: Engineers without Borders is going to El Salvador

One week in and we’re already hearing great stories about your volunteer travels and plans!  In the spirit of promoting volunteer travel, I wanted to tell you all about Michelle (a trip lead with Engineers without Borders – Orange County, CA) and her team’s upcoming trip to El Salvador working on Project Milagro.

Engineers Without Borders is a non-governmental organization focused on international development work whose vision is a world where all people have access to adequate sanitation, safe drinking water, and the resources to meet their other engineering and economic needs

Project Milagro’s goal is to build a water supply system for 7,000-10,000 people in three semi rural communities near San Salvador.  For decades, these communities have lacked potable water.  The community gets their water by either:

1.    Manually collecting water from unprotected streams, rivers, and springs, and carrying this water back home several times a day or;

2.    Purchasing untreated truck-delivered water that can cost up to 30% of a family’s income.

Unfortunately, both of these systems have resulted in water-borne illnesses within the communities.

Under Project Milagro, the team will design and construct a water distribution tank that will allow the project to complete a first phase of construction in which one of two mainlines will be completed.  The proposed system will allow the communities to have access to water drawn from project wells and treated as necessary to provide potable drinking water for the next 20 years.   This will drastically reduce the financial burden of the current truck delivery and reduce disease and illness that result from water-borne contaminants.

For full details, check out their wiki

The team comprises engineers, geologists, scientists, environmental professionals and others from a diversity of fields.

The Problem?  In this economy, the team is having difficulty raising the funds they need for this project to go ahead.  They need to raise a total of $21K for equipment and supplies and transportation.  Not surprisingly, given the economic conditions this is a tough task and the team’s pretty worried!

The best way we thought we could help at GeckoGo is to raise awareness about their project and put out a call for help and advice for how they can reduce costs or meet their fundraising goals.

Want to contribute to this trip and help the team reach their $21K goal?  Donate here

Got suggestions on how the team could travel more cheaply?  Share your ideas!

Thanks guys! =)