Pictured: Concept note for an Agrilab project
The Agrilab is a co-design and capacity building program working to enable accessible agricultural livelihoods for people living with disabilities in rural Cambodia. The Agrilab involves a series of codesign workshops, during which people with disabilities work with engineers to create accessible technologies. Like many, many other things, the program has changed a lot in the face of the global pandemic. The workshops can’t continue during the pandemic, especially since these communities include some of the most vulnerable people.
During this time, EWB’s volunteer network has been stepping up, collectively contributing almost 600 hours of work into three projects identified by the Agrilab communities. These projects include the accessible transport of farm produce, transportation of water for crops and accessible cultivation tools for vegetable crops.
Five teams of over 20 engineering professionals and students have worked at various stages of the design process including detailed and conceptual design. This work has refined prototype technologies previously developed through the Agrilab, and generated new concepts for further exploration and development.
This work contributes critical engineering and creative input into technology projects that address community identified challenges. The designs and concepts generated by the volunteer teams will be used by EWB’s Cambodian staff, allowing them to continue the co-design process with communities when it is safe to do so.
This project is supported by the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP), funded by the Australian Government.
To support EWB’s vital work like this fin Cambodia and others in the Asia-Pacific region please donate at www.ewb.org.au/donate.