Ignite Ole Miss: Ole Miss Engineers Without Borders Togo Project

Please help us send members of the Ole Miss chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and School of Engineering faculty members to Togo, Africa, to complete the water supply project that will provide clean water to a children’s hospital in the rural village of Akoumape.

Togo is a distressed country in West Africa with a population of approximately 6.7 million people. Around one half of the population lives below the international poverty line. Service to others is part of the DNA of Ole Miss students, faculty, and staff. With your help, we can continue to help transform the lives of our fellow human beings in Togo.

The EWB-Ole Miss team made a long-term commitment in 2012 to work with rural villages in Togo to improve community infrastructure and health care. With four productive trips completed since that time, the EWB-Ole Miss team has built a school that provides a safe setting for dozens of children to benefit from educational opportunities. How rewarding it has been to be so engaged with this community and involved in building an educational facility!

The next step in the team’s commitment to rural Togo is to provide water to a children’s hospital, which is being built by a non-profit organization.

The hospital is almost complete but has no source of water. The job of EWB-Ole Miss is to drill a well, build two water towers, and install a distribution pipe and a public tap stand. For these complicated tasks to be carefully planned, the EWB-Ole Miss team must go to Togo for the planning stages in January 2016, anticipating a deep water well installation in the summer of 2016.

Dedicated Travelers

• Vera Gardner, junior mechanical engineering major and second-time traveler to Togo
• Timothy Steenwyk, junior mechanical engineering major and chapter vice president for outreach
• Zach Lepchitz, graduate student in geological engineering and world traveler
• Paige Lohman, sophomore mechanical engineering major and team health & safety officer
• Dillon Hall, sophomore mechanical engineering major, with expertise in building and manufacturing
• Cris Surbeck, faculty in civil and environmental engineering and third-time traveler to Togo
• Bob Holt, faculty in geological engineering and responsible engineer in charge
• Paul Scovazzo, faculty in chemical engineering and construction guru

All of these travelers and countless other chapter members have invested time, money and deeply committed efforts to this project through to completion. Faculty members donate all of their travel time without compensation. Participants are passionate about seeing this children’s hospital have clean water, which, in turn, will help health-care workers care for sick children.

Give today and help the EWB-Ole Miss team travel to Togo in January 2016! Let’s bring hope and better health to the lives of children by drilling a well and getting clean water to Akoumape, Togo! Every time you turn on your water faucet, please think of giving the gift of clean water to deserving young people!

In addition to your monetary gift, you can also make an impact by becoming an ambassador for our campaign and sharing our message with your family and friends via email and social media. Share project link: ignite.olemiss.edu/olemiss4togo and use #olemiss4togo.

Akpe! (Ewe for Thank You)

The indigenous African language spoken by the Togolese is Ewe. The rural village children of Akoumape, Togo and their grateful parents say “akpe” to you in advance for your generous support to provide clean water to their village. Our entire EWB-Ole Miss team says thank you & Hotty Toddy for making our mission a reality.

Article courtesy of Ignite Ole Miss and EWB- Ole Miss team

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