Muraho everyone!
This is Sonrisa, coming to you live from Colorado, right before the team leaves for Rwanda tonight!
This Summer, we have a team of four students and a mentor going to Cyanika, Rwanda for a trip that will see the team assess for future water catchment systems and close out the first three systems, (Munini, Nyarutosho, and Gasebeya) which were built in 2014.
The team is composed of myself (Sonrisa), Cassidy (next year's Project Manager), Casey (last year's Design team lead), Gary (co-PM last year), and a new mentor, Cole (an engineer in CO and returned Peace Corps volunteer). As the returning member from last year's travel and implementation team, I am looking forward to getting to see the friends made last summer in Cyanika and having my fellow traveling teammates get to experience Rwanda and everything the community has to offer.
While only five of the CU students involved with EWB CU Rwanda will be on this trip, the trip as a whole wouldn't have been possible without all of the work put in by our members over the past year.
As mentioned before, during the trip the team will be assessing possible future implementation sites and closing out three of the existing systems. Along with assessing for possible water systems sites, the team will also be looking as existing latrine and sanitation issues the Community Vision Board (CVB) mentioned last summer and will be conducting assessments on how the team may be able to assist the CVB in increasing access to quality sanitation infrastructure, along with the water catchment systems. The water catchment systems in Munini, Nyarutosho, and Gasebeya will be closed out this trip, following the EWB USA (Engineers Without Borders) guidelines that the responsibility for the project will be passed onto the community, five years after implementation.
The first week of our time in Rwanda we will be focusing on talking with the community and conducting Monitoring and Evaluation activities. These activities mainly include participating at CVB meetings and conducting surveys in each of the five villages where EWB CU Rwanda has implemented a water system. The surveys are designed to collect feedback from the community regarding their use and satisfaction with the water systems so that moving forward, future EWB projects in the Cyanika community can be as successful as possible. During this time we hope to gather stories from volunteer community members in a "Humans of New York" fashion - something that we were not able to complete last year. The team hopes to use the stories and images collected in order to bring back part of the community (in a way) to Colorado where our members and donors can see the impact of their support in person.
I want to take a second to thank all of the donors that supported the team over the past couple of years, especially to the companies that donated this past year. We would not be able to travel and complete this necessary work without you. I also want to thank Village Makeover for helping our team with everything when it comes to travel!
This is Sonrisa, coming to you live from Colorado, right before the team leaves for Rwanda tonight!
This Summer, we have a team of four students and a mentor going to Cyanika, Rwanda for a trip that will see the team assess for future water catchment systems and close out the first three systems, (Munini, Nyarutosho, and Gasebeya) which were built in 2014.
The team is composed of myself (Sonrisa), Cassidy (next year's Project Manager), Casey (last year's Design team lead), Gary (co-PM last year), and a new mentor, Cole (an engineer in CO and returned Peace Corps volunteer). As the returning member from last year's travel and implementation team, I am looking forward to getting to see the friends made last summer in Cyanika and having my fellow traveling teammates get to experience Rwanda and everything the community has to offer.
While only five of the CU students involved with EWB CU Rwanda will be on this trip, the trip as a whole wouldn't have been possible without all of the work put in by our members over the past year.
As mentioned before, during the trip the team will be assessing possible future implementation sites and closing out three of the existing systems. Along with assessing for possible water systems sites, the team will also be looking as existing latrine and sanitation issues the Community Vision Board (CVB) mentioned last summer and will be conducting assessments on how the team may be able to assist the CVB in increasing access to quality sanitation infrastructure, along with the water catchment systems. The water catchment systems in Munini, Nyarutosho, and Gasebeya will be closed out this trip, following the EWB USA (Engineers Without Borders) guidelines that the responsibility for the project will be passed onto the community, five years after implementation.
The first week of our time in Rwanda we will be focusing on talking with the community and conducting Monitoring and Evaluation activities. These activities mainly include participating at CVB meetings and conducting surveys in each of the five villages where EWB CU Rwanda has implemented a water system. The surveys are designed to collect feedback from the community regarding their use and satisfaction with the water systems so that moving forward, future EWB projects in the Cyanika community can be as successful as possible. During this time we hope to gather stories from volunteer community members in a "Humans of New York" fashion - something that we were not able to complete last year. The team hopes to use the stories and images collected in order to bring back part of the community (in a way) to Colorado where our members and donors can see the impact of their support in person.
I want to take a second to thank all of the donors that supported the team over the past couple of years, especially to the companies that donated this past year. We would not be able to travel and complete this necessary work without you. I also want to thank Village Makeover for helping our team with everything when it comes to travel!
This blog will be the best way for anyone who would like to keep up with the team's progress to do so. Throughout our trip, we will be updating the blog, about every other day - with pictures!!
Again, thank you to everyone who has supported, in any way, and the entire CU EWB Rwanda team throughout the year! We couldn't do it without you all!
Very exciting!
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