Akwaaba! Welcome! I have been bestowed a great opportunity to travel to Ghana this summer with Engineers Without Borders (EWB). But with this great opportunity comes great responsibility; I am not going to Africa for a holiday - although I could handle some warmer weather right now! For me, there will be no five star resorts, hunting safaris, or long days spent intoxicated on the beach. Instead, I will spend my days working hard to ensure that I make a positive impact for the Ghanaian poor (over 75% of the population lives on less than $2/day) and my nights underneath a malaria preventing mosquito net. Sound like fun? You bet!
I’m eager to live in a rural village (read: no running water, no electricity, and a long bike ride from any internet!) living and sweating the realities of life that far too many live in this world. And while I will only have a small direct impact in Ghana with my four short months, I will make a difference both in Canada and Ghana when I return home and share the realities and hardships that I have experienced. You can follow along with my experiences this summer by emailing me at adamfk@umanitoba.ewb.ca or viewing my blog at http://ewb-adam.blogspot.com
About the Author
Adam Fraser-Kruck is a 4th year computer engineering student at the University of Manitoba (UofM), and has been a member of the UofM chapter of EWB for three years. He has also been a member of the IEEE McNaughton Student Centre at the UofM. He will be the eighth volunteer the chapter has sent overseas since 2002.
About EWB
Poverty is not about weakness. For the 800 million people who go hungry each day and the one billion who lack access to clean water, poverty is an absence of opportunity.
Engineers Without Borders is responding to this urgent need, helping people in developing communities gain access to technologies that will improve their lives. We believe that technology, when appropriately incorporated into each community's social, cultural, economic and political context, can drive extraordinary change.
See pdf version of newsletter - http://www.ieee.ca/winnipeg/newsletter/wpg2008/newsletter0803.pdf
