1. INTRODUCTION
The dreams of people in the third world remain just that–dreams. They can be as straightforward as being able to gain education or walk in a street without coming across insanitary conditions. Many adults and children living in urban environments have few opportunities to achieve even basic life needs let alone fulfil their life aspirations.
Engineers Against Poverty (EAP) supports schemes in both rural and urban areas, which provide people with the opportunities to use engineering to learn a trade. Such support can make a real impact on securing sustainable local economies.
At present our programmes are in India, Bangladesh and Ethiopia and concentrate in four sectors: enterprise development, water harvesting, alternative energy and urban services. The urban environments in many countries are defined by failing municipal services, squalor and increased marginalisation. Engineering solutions for the urban environment are available, but are not being applied for various social and political reasons. Partners of EAP in urban environments are seeking to introduce local engineers to work with NGOs and communities in major conurbations. They provide the technical skills and local knowledge required to suggest appropriate technology for the complex and rapidly growing urban environment.
EAP works with many organisations including the Department for International Development (DFID) and other aid agencies. An example is our work with CARE International in working with slum communities in Delhi, India (see Fig. 1). CARE are running a five-year plan to promote links between the communities and the municipal authorities, enabling communities to ask for the services that they need and have the right to ask for. For this programme EAP is providing a local engineer who understands the technical needs of municipal engineering, but more importantly who is aware of the complexity of the social fabric of the inhabitants of the slums.
EAP is extending the use of appropriate technology to those who can most benefit from it and we believes that through individual and social empowerment these communities will be able to achieve their life ambitions.
2. ABOUT EAP
This is just one way in which Engineers Against Poverty works. We specialise in mobilising appropriate and sustainable engineering skills and technology to meet the needs of marginalised communities. The introduction of such skills aims to place the ownership and potential of technology in the hands of those who can most benefit from it.
Our goal through the network of local engineers is to see more partnerships established between poor people, local government and the private sector to enable communities to obtain the appropriate services they so desperately need.
The constant search for better practice and new programmes is part of the everyday work of EAP and we encourage the exchange of ideas locally and internationally. For further information visit the EAP website at www.eap-engineer.org.
