Engineers Without Borders
Sharing the Same Sky
By Ka-Hay Law, BASC'03
Reprinted with permission from Trek, Issue #22: Fall 2008
My legs ache, my feet are sore and my throat is parched. It is night time and I am in Chikupili, a rural village in the central province of Zambia. In the privacy of the bathhouse – three brick walls and an old maize bag posing as the fourth – I am trying to wash away the day’s dirt with water drawn from the nearby stream. It’s been a long day, learning about rural livelihoods through conversations with dozens of farmers, and harvesting groundnuts and sugar cane with my host family, the Mwansas.
I pour cupfuls of cool water over my head but the remnants of the day’s punishing heat are winning the tug of war and I feel my body slowing down. Then my eyes catch the sparkles of hundreds of stars scattered across a pitch black sky. The melodic voices of Mrs. Mwansa and her daughters singing Bemba folk songs flow into the night, and the unrestrained laughter of children enters into my soul, lifting the veil of exhaustion from my bones. This moment, like countless others, reminds me of two very important things. First, despite the obvious disparities in opportunities between me the Mwansas, we are similar at the core. We share the same night sky, a similar love of music and joy of their children, who remind me of my nieces and nephews. Second, I am extremely fortunate to have an opportunity to do what I love.
I’m currently living and working in Zambia and Malawi with Engineers without Borders (EWB). In February of this year, I began working with an amazing team of dedicated young Canadians managing our work in agricultural value chains. That I am working in international development is a surprise to many, perhaps most of all to me.
I am a pretty ordinary Canadian. I was born and raised in Wallaceburg, a small town in rural Ontario. My parents immigrated to Canada 35 years ago from Hong Kong and had more traditional plans for me and my brothers. When I started engineering at UBC nearly ten years ago, the continent of Africa was nothing more than the National Geographic poster of elephants and giraffes that hung on my brother’s wall during my childhood years. Now, like many others, I would like to see a more equitable world where statements like “one billion people living on less than $1/day,” or “800 million will go to bed hungry tonight” are no longer fact.
So how did this small town girl end up in Zambia? I suppose it comes down to two things: opportunity and EWB.
It all began in 2001. I was two years away from graduating from UBC. One day, my friend Robin tapped me on the shoulder and suggested that I check out an organisation called Engineers Without Borders. What I discovered was an opportunity to leverage my engineering training for social impact. More importantly, I discovered an organisation that provides other Canadians who share a belief that a more equitable world is possible, with the opportunities to make it happen.
“EWB is a movement,” someone with decades of experience in development said to me recently, in reference to the focus of the organisation to enable young Canadians. When I think of the opportunities I have had to take action against global poverty through EWB, I would agree.
As leader of the UBC chapter, I met a group of passionate people. Together, we launched Bridging the Gap, which has become an annual conference at UBC. That experience led to an opportunity to work with EWB in Ghana, and there I fell in love with the continent and people. It was also there that my perception of business changed from one where economic growth equalled exploitation, to one where economic growth could be used for poverty reduction. This understanding led to my interest in leveraging business for social impact. When I returned to Canada in 2004, I worked as an advisor with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility. In early 2007, after two years working with some of Canada’s largest companies, I went with EWB to Zambia to help on a project to improve market opportunities for farmers, which led to where I am today.
Engineers Without Borders provides these kinds of opportunities to its members and alumni. There is Andrew Young, who first became interested in high school when he won the 2004 essay competition. Andrew is now the president of the UBC chapter, leading a team of students who embody UBC’s vision of global citizenship. There is Monica Rucki, BASc’04, EWB UBC’s first volunteer. After working in East Timor and Ghana, she is now leading EWB’s work in engineering education in Malawi. There is Robin Farnworth, BASc’04, the friend who tapped me on the shoulder in 2001. After managing EWB’s work in West Africa for two years, she is now managing EWB’s overseas training program. There is Mike Quinn, BASc’03, who after working with EWB in Ghana and Zambia, finished his MBA at Oxford on a Skoll Scholarship for Social Entrepreneurship and is about to return to Zambia to explore enterprise opportunities. There is Mike Kang, BASc’08, who served as president of the UBC chapter last year. As I write this, Mike is preparing to join our water and sanitation team in Malawi.
These are all examples of people whose EWB experiences have led them to contribute overseas. Now, however, there are growing numbers of people like Doris Tang, BASc’04, and John Terborg, BASc’03. They both work fulltime in Vancouver while volunteering with EWB Vancouver to engage the local professional community in development issues. Both are EWB UBC alumni who are demonstrating that global citizenship does not end after you leave university and that there are opportunities to contribute right here in Canada.
The ripple effect of EWB carries with it the hope of the future. The vision that we all share – of a more equitable world, where the Mwansas have the same opportunities as you and I – is possible. EWB, with its 35,000-strong membership, will help lead the way.
Ka-Hay Law works with Engineers Without Borders in Zambia
