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W: You have no doubt heard of Doctors without Borders. Now Canadian engineers are launching their own international aid program to help developing nations. And joining us now: one of the cofounders, George Rotor. Good morning.
M: Good morning.
W: George, what is this thing? How did it get started? What was the inspiration?
M: Well, I guess myself and the cofounder, Parker Mitchell, were fairly aware of some of the challenges in the developing world as we were going through our bachelor’s degrees and in school together.
W: At which school ?
M: We were at the University of Waterloo. And that was really where the seed was planted for the organization. The idea was there. We understood that technology could have an effect on improving the quality of life of people living in the developing world by attacking some of the basic livelihood challenges.
W: For people who don’t know what engineers necessarily do, just give us some of the ideas.
M: Some of the ideas of the projects that we would be undertaking are allowing water to be purified, removing land mines, sanitation, and electricity. These are some of the things that we take for granted here in Canada or North America, but people in sub-Saharan Africa don’t have many of these things.
W: Who are the people that go overseas to undertake those projects? Are they young people? Are they still students?
M: Right now what we have on the majority of our projects are students going overseas and working with existing nongovernmental organizations like Care Canada, who have been working in the developing world for twenty or thirty years. So there’re a lot of experienced people there, at least in developing-world projects. And then often there’re engineers on those projects who act as mentors. And our next-stage projects—and we have already begun this with the Light Up the World Project—are putting together groups of students going over there with professional engineers to implement some of technologies.
W: And what do these people report back to you? What do they say? Is it rewarding?
M: They love it. They come back with renewed interest, a renewed sense of vigor. And they come back and they tell us just how neat a group like Engineers without Borders is.
W: So where do you go from here? You have had a couple of successful projects. You have a lot of interest. What do you do? What’s your vision from this thing?
M: Well, I like to think big and so do the people who are involved in the organization. Right now we have almost a thousand members across Canada, fourteen groups coast-to-coast right now. So we’re growing. And we want to continue that growth then start to expand in the United States and in Britain and in Australia.
W: And how do you find the funding?
M: We have some great corporate citizens who stepped up and took the lead on this. Suncor Energy Foundation and Ontario Power Generation, for example, and a few other similar-type organizations have given us the seed funding to keep this going. What we need to do now is to start approaching individuals in the community who’re willing to support this project, as well as other corporations and government funding for development relief.
W: Well, nice seeing you. Good luck.
M: Thanks a lot.