Impact Stories
Making change happen across Australia and Asia Pacific.
Coming full circle: volunteer Meg Cummins returns to the project that started it all
When Meg Cummins first set foot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an Environmental Engineering Mentor with Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB), she was driven by a desire to create lasting change. Now, as she prepares to return to her role at Aurecon after a 12-month...
Coming full circle: volunteer Meg Cummins returns to the project that started it all
When Meg Cummins first set foot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an Environmental Engineering Mentor with Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB), she was driven by a desire to create lasting change. Now, as she prepares to return to her role at Aurecon after a 12-month...
Coming full circle: volunteer Meg Cummins returns to the project that started it all
When Meg Cummins first set foot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an Environmental Engineering Mentor with Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB), she was driven by a desire to create lasting change. Now, as she prepares to return to her role at Aurecon after a 12-month...
A toilet that works underwater? Flood-affected sanitation in rural Cambodia
We’re living in the golden age of toilet design. It sounds like a weird thing to say but the idea of an inside toilet that immediately flushes waste away through a series of underground pipes is the kind of thing that would blow the minds of people living just 100...
Beyond the classroom: Victoria’s transformative trip to Cambodia
Since 2015, EWB’s Humanitarian Design Summits have created transformative learning experiences like no other. Designed for undergraduate engineering students, these study tours challenge thinking, push boundaries, and create first-hand understanding of just how...
A message from EWB CEO, Eleanor Loudon
As Eleanor wraps up six years as EWB Chief Executive Officer this month, she shares some reflections about her experience leading the organisation over the years: An Indigenous elder on an island in Kratie, Cambodia, once took me aside and asked directly, what can...
Navigating the tides: Saibai Island’s battle against climate change
In 2024, the First Nations context for the EWB Challenge will be delivered in partnership with Torres Strait Island Regional Council. Torres Strait Island Regional Council is Australia's most northerly municipality, representing 15 unique island communities, spread...
The Handi-Plough tool has one simple job: to empower Cambodian women farmers
In Cambodia, nearly 80% of people live rurally and many operate small farms to feed their families and generate income. These agricultural holdings are often run, and worked, by women who face unique challenges in the field. EWB engineers Mengheang Hak, Mitch Horrocks...
Volunteer adventures in Vanuatu: Sadia’s life-changing year abroad
When Sadia Abdullah arrived in Vanuatu, the first thing she noticed was the heat and the humidity. The second was how friendly everyone was, and the strong sense of community.
Sadia flew into Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, in August 2022. Months earlier, she was at home in Sydney under tight COVID restrictions and eager to go anywhere outside her living room. Now, just a three-hour flight from Sydney, she was in beautiful Vanuatu, a country she knew almost nothing about a few months prior — just “that it was a dot in the Pacific”. Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands with a population of around 300,000 people, located east of Australia on a similar latitude to Cairns.
Global travels and local impact – Bea Duffield’s volunteering journey
Bea Duffield isn’t an engineer, but her experience spans almost everything else. From her academic background in scientific research to her career across both private enterprise and government sector, she has worked in a range of diverse fields including resource development, communications and marketing, policy, and infrastructure development. Her varied career has taken her across the globe, from her home base in Brisbane to Vietnam, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
Announcing our 2024 EWB Challenge community partner – Torres Strait Island Regional Council
Each year, over 10,000 first-year university students across Australia and New Zealand participate in the EWB Challenge. Students work in teams to develop a solution to challenges identified by EWB Australia’s community-based partners. We are excited to announce that...