We may not be able to save the world with a cup of coffee, but the team behind the Waterloo professional chapter of Engineers Without Borders wants us to try.

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) helps developing communities abroad better their circumstances by establishing water sanitation projects, bringing new revenue models to agricultural businesses and empowering people though technological education (read EWB overseas volunteer Kristi Minor’s Red Canary blog on her experiences in Ghana here).

You don’t need to go overseas, you don’t need to be an engineer,” says Jonathan Fishbein, chapter leader. “We call it the impact chain. Seemingly small [actions] can actually have a ripple effect.

But work abroad must start at home, and the Waterloo chapter aims to make it start in your office and grocery cart as well.

From students to teachers
Established in fall 2006, EWB Waterloo’s professional group is somewhat of an outgrowth of its University of Waterloo chapter. Many of the founding members were or are still involved in the student chapter.

The chapter’s primary activities focus on public and workplace outreach. Their public program starts with lectures presented at community centres.

George Roter and Parker Mitchell – Co-Founders of Engineers Without Borders Canada

Past speakers include EWB Canada co-founder and co-CEO George Roter. Mike Gerbis, president of the Delphi Group, delivered an “inconvenient truth” lecture. “We’ve had more than 100 attendees at some of these events,” boasts the chapter’s leader, Jonathan Fishbein.

Seeding good ideas at work
The workplace workshops, or ‘lunch and learns’ are more detailed and participatory versions of their lecture series. “We have several themed workshops. One of ours deals with linking actions here to impact overseas,” starts Smith.

“Buying fair trade coffee for example, ensures that the people producing the goods are getting paid an equitable wage and getting an investment in their community.”

The workshops generally involve brainstorming activities and mini lectures on various situations abroad. While recruitment and donations are always welcome, “We don’t look so far as to a call to arms, but we do look for simple solutions that can be done here, like buying fair trade coffee or writing a letter to an MP,” explains Smith.

Following one such workshop, CH2MHill organized a week-long fundraising campaign to benefit EWB Waterloo and Water for People.

“Small things you do at home can really have an impact abroad. It really does have a ripple effect. Buying fair trade products might not seem like much, but if more people did it, and did it more often, then we would see greater change,” says Fishbein.

Attendees may be looking for more hands-on work that can be done on Canadian soil, such as programming or systems design, but the chapter discourages people from taking on such tasks without a better understanding of the community’s needs.

“If you go to a rural developing community and you try to give everyone a cell phone and think that’ll help in any way, it won’t,” adds Smith. “It won’t be the most appropriate technology. But, if you go in and try to improve their plough, that’ll be more useful and more appropriate for them.”

Different countries, different solutions
For Fishbein and Smith, generating awareness about the complexities of poverty and encouraging Canadians to think about the small things they can do at home is equally important as digging a well in Africa.

“When you live in Canada, you approach these issues with a Canadian problem-solving method. But Canadian solutions don’t always work abroad. Really what we try to do is have people that are working “on the ground” actually work on the ground. You really need to have an understanding of what a community’s needs are (if you’re going to develop) the right solution,” explains Fishbein.

In fact, only a handful of Waterloo’s members are or will be gong abroad. Sarah Lewis, one of the chapter’s founding members, is one of the few working “on the ground” in northern Ghana. “Her project is to promote farming as a business. A lot of the farmers in northern Ghana are subsistence farmers and don’t sell their good at markets. They are literally eating hand to mouth,” explains Fishbein.

While Fishbein will be heading on a 13-month long project this summer, he doesn’t think he’ll be applying his skills as a software engineer. “I don’t know where I’m going or what I’ll be doing, but I know I won’t be doing any software development. It’s just not a required skill or necessity in the country I’ll be visiting.”

But before gets his hands dirty, Fishbein and other volunteers will keep working hard to help Canadians keep their conscience clean.