Impact Stories
Making change happen across Australia and Asia Pacific.
This graduate program puts women engineers in the field and brings ‘feto’ to the front
In Timor-Leste, water is a woman’s problem. In rural and regional areas, water generally isn’t delivered into homes – women and children manually fetch water from the natural springs and carry the household’s water supply back home every morning. It’s heavy work and can take them quite far afield in an often rocky, mountainous region.
Although water is a woman’s responsibility, and the burden of poor water infrastructure becomes a woman’s problem, there aren’t many women engineers working in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.
Engineering continues to be a male-dominated industry, especially in a country like Timor-Leste, where traditional gender roles are still influential in dictating what people do for work. But a new program delivered by the Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) team in Timor-Leste seeks to change that.
This graduate program puts women engineers in the field and brings ‘feto’ to the front
In Timor-Leste, water is a woman’s problem. In rural and regional areas, water generally isn’t delivered into homes – women and children manually fetch water from the natural springs and carry the household’s water supply back home every morning. It’s heavy work and can take them quite far afield in an often rocky, mountainous region.
Although water is a woman’s responsibility, and the burden of poor water infrastructure becomes a woman’s problem, there aren’t many women engineers working in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector.
Engineering continues to be a male-dominated industry, especially in a country like Timor-Leste, where traditional gender roles are still influential in dictating what people do for work. But a new program delivered by the Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) team in Timor-Leste seeks to change that.
Falling into fulfilment: how Jack’s volunteering is engineering change in Timor-Leste
Jack Bygott hasn’t always been passionate about engineering; he was just always good at maths. Like most kids who were good at maths or science, he “fell into” studying engineering at university. “I was having second thoughts about studying engineering but then I...
Solutions to clean water access for schools in rural Timor-Leste
Twelve months on from the devastating floods in Timor-Leste that impacted tens of thousands of households and left infrastructure severely damaged, EWB has been working with communities to support recovery and longer-term resilience. The ability to access clean water...
Solar is powering a water supply for an island on the Mekong
1.14 million people living in rural settings in Cambodia still have no access to reliable electricity, which means that sourcing energy to operate mechanical systems can be challenging. Utilising renewable energy is a vital solution and Engineers Without Borders...
Inaugural EWB Digital Design Summit inspires confidence and curiosity
The pandemic called for new, creative approaches to delivering EWB’s inspiring, immersive learning experiences that are critical in nurturing future-ready engineers. From this, the first Digital Design Summit was born. Held for six weeks across January and February,...
Design Summit leads to better tools to natively restore Country
A key part of our individual reconciliation journeys should always be to understand the Traditional Owners and their lands that we live on. EWB’s ACT Chapter recently broadened their learning of the local Traditional Owners of Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, and in...
Novel design on track to take portable solar energy on Country
The Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) has been enabling remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to access renewable energy since its inception, and has been working with the in depth support of EWB on a novel mobile solar energy system since...
Volunteer engineers needed for the New South Wales flood response
EWB Australia is committed to mobilising professional engineers in partnership with Holding Hands Under Ground (HHUG) to support flood-affected communities in the Northern Rivers region. There are currently not enough qualified engineers in the Northern Rivers region...
Ground-breaking research on the future of engineering needs you!
The BeLongEng research project will help the sector understand how experiences in humanitarian engineering shape careers and opportunities in the long-term. Unique opportunity to influence the future of engineering education and policy EWB Australia is pleased to...
Announcing our 2022 EWB Challenge community partner
Photo: EWB Australia staff with rangers, other staff, board members and elders in front of their recently launched Yirrganydji Land and Sea Rangers boat (named ‘Kulbul’ meaning ‘sea’) during their scoping visit to Cairns in October 2021. Each year, EWB Australia...