Letter from a Humanitarian Engineering entrepreneur

Dear student,

Congratulations on deciding to participate in a humanitarian engineering experience! This is likely to be one of the highlights of your education, and it will undoubtedly influence your future career and personal decisions. It’s also likely to be one of the most challenging, frustrating and satisfying things that you have done.

I became interested in humanitarian studies during my undergraduate program at Colorado State University. We didn’t have a humanitarian engineering class or program, but we had an active Engineers Without Borders student chapter. During holidays, we would visit Native American communities in the Southwestern United States, camping in the isolated, desert communities on the reservations and supporting home renovations, and water supply and solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. It was exciting to get out of the classroom and get hands-on. It was also surprising to find communities living with such limited resources and largely disconnected from modern society just a few hours away. Aside from the hands-on experience, I gained empathy.

Before you go forward, you should think about why you want to do this and whether you are committed to doing a good job. We know that there is a long, awful history wrought with colonisation, exploitation, forced removal, and false promises during the expansion of the “developed” world into the “developing” world. A lot of that was long ago, but it still has relevance today, and it’s still happening. Unfortunately, we carry that when we work as humanitarian engineers. Sometimes, we also contribute to that, although it may be unintentional. Working to improve the lives of poor people in underdeveloped countries is not a holiday. You should not do this to attract followers to your Instagram, post YouTube videos featuring village children, or boost your resume.

If you get a chance to travel to your partner community, consider the amount of time and resources that are going into your participation in this experience. Your instructors and administrators are spending many hours organising logistics, liaising with community partners, and preparing for various scenarios to ensure this is a well-organised and safe experience. The money being spent is likely unimaginable to people in your partner community. Would the community or your partner organisation be better off if they received that money directly? You are educated, have access to resources and networks, and you are capable of contributing to a positive impact in the community. Make use of those, and seek out more as you prepare. You are learning and practising, but poor people do not deserve poor products and services. They deserve the very best that you have.

In the community, at times you will feel uncomfortable, hot, sweaty, dirty, sick, itchy, and tired. You are also likely to feel joy, satisfaction in your work, and more connected to other people than you have felt in a long time. Put your phone away. Talk to real people.

Be respectful, but be yourself. You will be fascinated with life in the community, and they will be fascinated with you. Rural communities are often generous and happy to share what little they have. Try to reciprocate that generosity and openness. Almost every conversation should start with: “It’s nice to meet you. How are you? How is the family? We are all fine on our side. Your house is looking so nice. Please greet your mother for me.” Recalibrate yourself away from the fast-paced, to-the-point, optimised interactions that you are used to. Learn some of the local language(s). Don’t wear your pyjamas. Look at maps and learn the names of places in the area, and ask local people about them. Before, during and after your visit, talk to your partners regularly and be prepared with good questions and updates so you don’t waste their time. If they are willing to share, take people’s contacts and stay in touch with them. Check to see how they are doing. Wish them a happy holiday. Ask how the project is going and if there’s any way that you can support. Don’t expect to finish this class or the trip and then never engage again. Even if you never return to the community, your efforts to remain connected are valued and important, and expected in many cultures. It doesn’t feel good to be forgotten. You’ll get busy and focused on other parts of your life. Before you move on to the next term, do a good job of preparing your work to be handed on to the next group of students. Not doing this and repeating the same conversations, research, design work, etc., every semester/term is counterproductive.

Finally, thank you for participating. There are endless challenges that most of the world has forgotten about.

Onward,

About the author

name: Dr Daniel Sweeney

institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

website: https://d-lab.mit.edu/about/people/daniel-sweeney

Dr Daniel Sweeney holds a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah. He is a research scientist, lecturer and mechanical engineer at the MIT D-Lab (Development through Dialogue, Design, and Dissemination Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), a program where students practice design and engineering in low-resource settings, where Dr Daniel has been active and instructed classes since 2013. Dr Daniel works with community partners around the world on the design and evaluation of affordable products and the machines that make them at scale, and using technology to responsibly access hard-to-reach information. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Sweden focused on developing advanced processes to convert biomass residues into energy and fuels. He has been a co-founder of social businesses in Uganda and India.