[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/EWB rob.jpg” caption=”Engineering students Robert Borzychowski and Marka Jansen (below) volunteered in Africa last summer. Photo courtesy McMaster EWB.”]Two McMaster engineering students have recently unpacked their bags after completing a four-month volunteer term in Zambia and Ghana.

The students, members of the McMaster Chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), are entering another year of school with a new attitude, a wealth of new learning experiences and much to reflect upon.

Every summer, McMaster's EWB sponsors two students to travel to Africa to work on a development project alongside another NGO.

Marka Jansen (BioChemical Engineering IV) and Robert Borzychowski (Mechanical Engineering and Society V) are eager to talk about their overseas experience.

“You recognize things from [the local's] perspective much better when you're integrated into their context,” explains Jansen about her term in Tamale, Ghana.

And integrated they were: EWB volunteers are placed with a family throughout their term. They live in the family's home in the community where they volunteer, and they experience the same living conditions as their host.

Jansen was working with Opportunities Industrialization Centres, which runs projects that include borehole drilling, water and sanitation and micro enterprise development.

She said her involvement in these projects has made her excited to “encourage more people to consider overseas placements and get involved in groups like EWB.”

Borzychowski was placed in Livingstone, Zambia, and worked with Mike Quinn, an EWB long-term overseas volunteer, on a project run by CARE Zambia. The project involved the promotion of growing sorghum to achieve food security through crop diversification in a country where maize is the primary crop.

Borzychowski says his term has inspired him to apply for a long-term (24-month) overseas volunteer position with EWB after he graduates next spring. The former McMaster chapter president (2005-06) emphasizes that the hands-on experience he gained is irreplaceable

“When you're actually in a developing community, you see the detrimental effect of problems that seem trivial from the standpoint of someone sitting in North America,” he says. His personal experience exposed him to the dramatic effects of gender roles and the difficulties in working on development with these deeply ingrained values.

The two volunteers placed in two different countries worked on different projects and had very distinct experiences. They did, however, agree on one thing: there is no one recipe for development.

To read more about Jansen and Borzychowski's first hand experiences, please visit the McMaster EWB website and click on “Overseas Blogs.”

For more information about the McMaster chapter of Engineers Without Borders, its high school outreach programs, community events, fundraising and social activities, and for inquiries on sponsorship and donations, please e-mail ewb@mcmaster.ca or visit mcmaster.ewb.ca.