Impact Stories
Making change happen across Australia and Asia Pacific.
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.
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.
Inside the Dili Water System Emergency Repair program
The Dili Water System Emergency Repair Program (DWSERP) addressed the catastrophic flood damage to Dili’s water transmission systems wreaked by heavy rains in April 2021. The program, funded by the Australian Government via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, commenced in June 2021 and concluded in June 2023. EWB Australia, along with its program partners, played a key role in providing technical support, concept design, advice and delivery of multidisciplinary engineering to repair and stabilise major sections of Dili’s water system. The project was a wonderful opportunity for EWB to display its ability to engage in emergency infrastructure recovery projects. With the project now complete, the project team shared some of their reflections.
Menstrual hygiene needs attention. Period.
Menstrual hygiene is gaining traction as a critical water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) concern in the Asia-Pacific, and intersects many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In Timor-Leste, our WASH program works to support the needs of rural communities in...
Reflections of a volunteering lifer
Pictured: Heidi as a volunteer with EWB working with a local project team, on a water supply project, conducting a topographical survey for a water supply distribution line at a rural agricultural college in remote Timor-Leste. This National Volunteer Week, long-time...
Open Mobilisation Challenge: Design a Timer (Without Numbers)
Seeking: graphic designers, industrial designers, software engineers or individuals with a natural flair for pragmatic design! Join our open design challenge to help save the lives of mothers and babies in rural Myanmar. Why is this needed? Myanmar has the highest...
Supporting Vanuatu’s Covid-19 education response
Vanuatu remains one of the few countries in the world with no confirmed cases of Covid-19. But cultural activity, remote living, low incomes and a stretched health system make Vanuatu communities highly vulnerable to the spread of such a virus. EWB Australia has been...
What I learnt – EWB Design Summit Cambodia
Georgia is based in Brisbane, studying Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, with Bachelors in Medical Engineering and Physics. More recently, Georgia has been shadowing medical and electrical engineers at Nova Biomedical as part of a work experience...
Bigger and Bolder: World Engineering for Sustainable Development Day 2020
A wonderful legacy of the World Engineers Convention held in Melbourne late last year was the birth of the annual World Engineering Day for Sustainable Development, that we celebrate today, Wednesday March 4th, 2020 - a critical bringing-together of the engineering...
EWB Australia student chapters launch into Semester One 2020
Across the country EWB Australia student chapters have been bringing energy and excitement to their university orientation events, introducing new students to the EWB community and the breadth of opportunities to engage and contribute while at university. Join us on a...
Making groundwater more accessible for Vanuatu communities
Groundwater is a vital resource in Vanuatu in which many depend on for their daily use. In a changing climate and with a growing population, demand for this resource is continuing to grow. Vanuatu’s archipelago consists of many small reef and volcanic islands which...