EWB pre-departure course

So I'm in North London at a massive countryside conference centre (which is also a huge Scout centre) for the week with all the other EWB placement volunteers. Arrived around 11am (but was already tired after only getting about 4 hours sleep!) and have been gradually meeting the other volunteers - there's quite a few (~25?).  Several are heading to South and East Africa and a bunch of us going to south and southeast Asia.  Traveled down with two others from Cambridge- Antoine, who is heading to Uganda for 3 months to work with RASD on a coffee demulcilager along with two others, and Priya who is heading to Peru for 6 months on her own. Really great to start meeting people who share similar interests and passions- so I'm looking forward to the rest of the week.

Where in the world all the EWB-UK volunteers are off to

I've finally met Seb, who will also be heading to India with me to work at the SELCO lab. He's going to be there for 5-6 months and will be heading out a week before me.

Which reminds me- my flights are booked! Leaving in late July, flying direct to Bengaluru (Bangalore). I'll return on the 4th November which leaves a bit of time to travel around a little- hopefully in Kerala if possible.

We have lots of activities and seminars this week from all sorts of interesting people. I'm really looking forward to a talk called "Big Picture: work on energy access" by someone from Practical Action consulting, and a session on "Working with communities" with a girl from the Institute of Development Studies. 

Engineers Without Borders UK

I'm off to India for 3 months with an organisation called Engineers Without Borders UK ( http://www.ewb-uk.org/). They send young engineering graduates to developing countries to work on exciting projects which aim to tackle poverty. The central idea of the organisation is that some of the barriers to development can be removed using engineering skills.  In addition to setting up placements from between 3 and 12 months, EWB-UK supports research projects which contribute to similar aims, provides training for students and young professionals, as well as funding outreach and education programmes to give more people an idea of the global issues it seeks to tackle.

EWB runs placements all over the world, supported by a bunch volunteers in the UK who make things happen. They are based in Cambridge, although my interviews for the placement were held in ARUP's head office in London (who are a supporter of EWB-UK). 

I first got involved with EWB at Loughborough Uni - although that branch of the network only really started up in my final year. I have always wanted a chance to combine two of my great passions- engineering and international development- and EWB give me a fantastic chance to do that!

EWB-UK have plenty going on across the country, so do check out their website.